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Nikon, Olympus raise forecasts on strong sales
2007-02-05
Japanese electronics makers Nikon and Olympus reported higher net profits for the nine months to December and raised forecasts for the full year on strong demand for high-end products. The two companies both benefitted from slimming their operations. Nikon has stopped production of all conventional film cameras, while Olympus is in the midst of a restructuring drive. Nikon Corp. said its net profit shot up 93.7 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters to 46.2 billion yen (381.5 million dollars). Sales were up 14.1 percent at 611.6 billion yen, with operating income rising 67.4 percent to 80.6 billion yen. A weaker yen, as well as successful efforts to concentrate on the higher-margin products, helped buoy profits, Nikon chief financial officer Ichiro Terato said. "Some of our revised earnings estimates for this fiscal year already exceed our medium-term goals. We will review them and will announce any possible change in May when we report results for the full year," Terato told a news conference. Nikon raised its net profit forecast for the year from 45 billion yen to 51 billion yen. The figure is nearly double its record net profit of 28.9 billion yen in the previous year. The company now forecasts operating income of 82 billion yen in the year to March on revenue of 800 billion yen. Nikon said demand went up for its high-end single-lens reflex (SLR) models, on which it and its rivals have increasingly focused. But shipments of compact cameras inched down in the period, meaning that overall digital camera shipments slipped to 6.09 million digital cameras in the first three quarters from 6.48 million a year earlier. However, Nikon said it expected to sell 8.55 million digital cameras the full year, up from 8.45 million in the previous year. "We feel that the base of SLR camera users has broadened," Terato said. Nikon said it sold 64 advanced LCD scanners and steppers in the period, up from 49 in the nine months to December 2005. Nikon also said its extraordinary gains on selling fixed assets were eight times higher at 797 million yen in the nine months to December compared with a year earlier. Meanwhile Olympus Corp., which has been rebounding from a slump, said its net profit was up 185 percent at 40.5 billion yen (334.5 million dollars). Operating income more than doubled to 77.9 billion yen, with sales inching up 5.1 percent to 764.6 billion yen. Olympus raised its net profit forecast for the year from 38 to 43 billion yen. The new projection is 49 percent higher than its net profit in the last financial year, when it returned to profit. Olympus has struggled in recent years to compete with rivals in digital camera sales. In 2005 it announced it would shed 4,000 jobs or 13 percent of its workforce. But Olympus said sales in its imaging systems business, which includes digital cameras, went up 14.4 percent in the latest period.
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