Sharp facing more than $280 million operating loss

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By Larry Banks

Japan’s Sharp is set to suffer an operating loss in the most recent financial quarter, according to the Nikkei Business Daily on Friday. There has been a downturn in the company’s smartphone display business, forcing it to seek bank bailouts in May.

The electronics giant is expected to report an operating loss of $282 million (35 billion yen) for the quarter, compared with a profit of 4.6 billion yen a year earlier.

Sharp sales expected to fall

Sharp’s quarterly sales were expected to fall by 3.2% to 600 billion yen. The figures were weaker than markets expected, and shares in Sharp fell 3% in the morning trade. Analysts have forecast, on average, an operating loss of around 21 billion yen on sales of 612 billion, says Thomson Reuters Estimates.

 

Sharp has recently struggled to cope with the fall in prices for LCD displays sold to smartphone companies. In May this year, it managed to secure a $1.9 billion bailout after it fell deep into the red.

Sharp’s July-September earnings will need to improve significantly for the company to meet its targeted operating profit of 10 billion yen for the April-September half, the report said.

SOURCE: Reuters.

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