Japan electronics firms struggle to regain glory days

The Panasonic Centre building, the company's showroom in Tokyo. Panasonic says it will abandon the consumer smartphone market as it struggles with the tough competition. (AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura)

TOKYO: Japan's top electronics firms on Thursday reported mixed earnings, with Sony slashing its full-year profit outlook while hard-hit Panasonic turned in strong earnings and boosted its annual forecast.

The firms have undergone painful restructuring to stem years of losses as they struggle to keep up in the low-margin television business, while rivals including Apple and South Korea's Samsung surge ahead in the lucrative smartphone sector

Sony booked a net loss of 15.8 billion yen ($160 million) in April-September and cut its forecast for the whole year to March by 40 per cent, blaming dwindling sales of digital cameras, personal computers and televisions.

However, that was still an improvement on the 40.1 billion yen loss in the same period last year.

The country's digital camera makers have suffered as consumers increasingly turn to smartphones to snap pictures, while Sony also said its film business turned in a weaker-than-expected performance.

Company chief Kazuo Hirai has shrugged off pleas to abandon the television unit altogether, while the firm has also turned down a call by a US hedge fund boss to spin off 20 per cent of its entertainment arm to boost profits

In an interview with foreign media this month, Hirai reaffirmed his plan to keep the entertainment business within the vast conglomerate, calling it "a very vital and important part of Sony Group's overall strategy".

"It is one of the key pillars of our future growth," he added.

The company is banking on strong holiday sales of its PlayStation 4 games console as rivals Nintendo and Microsoft also jockey for control of a sector worth $44 billion annually.

Panasonic, however, said dramatic corporate overhauls and a sharply weaker yen -- which makes exporters' goods cheaper overseas -- were key factors in helping it crawl back from the abyss after several quarters of swinging losses.

The firm said it had swung back to profit for the six months to September and doubled its full-year forecast -- after combined losses topping $15 billion in the past two fiscal years.

The company said it earned a 169.3 billion yen ($1.72 billion) net profit in the quarter of April-September, reversing a net loss of 685.2 billion yen a year earlier. It also said it was on track to earn a 100 billion yen net profit in the year to March.

However, Koki Shiraishi, analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo, warned: "The impact of a weak yen will start disappearing in the second half of the fiscal year, which will cut their profit."

He added: "There are still tough times ahead for Japanese electronics makers."

Panasonic has also said it would abandon the consumer smartphone market as it struggles with the tough competition. Its announcement came a day after rival NEC said Wednesday it had slipped into a loss tied to its own exit from the business.

In a separate statement on Thursday, Panasonic confirmed it would stop production of plasma television screens over the next few months, in line witha broader industry shift away from plasma units. Hitachi and Pioneer also exited the market in recent years.

It also said it was buying a 90 per cent stake in Turkish electrical firm Viko Elektrik for about $460 million.

Sharp, meanwhile, said on Thursday its first-half net loss shrank dramatically to $44 million, crediting the improvement to strong demand for its liquid crystal display panels used in smartphones and tablet computers as well as solar panels.

It also said it had benefited from cutting labour and other fixed costs while reining in capital spending.

Last year, the maker of Aquos-brand electronics warned it may go out of business as it scrambled to secure bank loans while offering its Osaka headquarters as collateral.