Kyocera Annual Profit Beats Forecast on Phone
Sales (Update2)
By Hiroshi Suzuki
Tokyo, May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Kyocera Corp., a Japanese maker
of telecommunications equipment and electronic parts, said annual
profit rose a better-than-expected 78 percent on a surge in sales
of mobile phone handsets and related components.
Group net income at Kyocera, which bought Qualcomm Inc.'s
mobile phone-making unit in February, rose to 50.3 billion yen,
or 265.7 yen a share, in the year ended March 31, from 28.2
billion yen, or 148.4 yen a share, a year ago. Kyocera was
expected to earn 48.9 billion yen, the average forecast of 15
analysts surveyed by IBES International.
The Kyoto-based company benefited from growth in sales of
cellular phones, a trend that also raised profit at Sharp Corp.,
which makes liquid crystal displays and other parts for phones;
NEC Corp., which makes chips and other parts used to make mobile
phones; and other companies.
Kyocera sales rose 12 percent to 812.6 billion yen, led by
sales of lightweight cellular phone handsets using Qualcomm's
cdmaOne standard. IDO Corp., the cell phone unit of Toyota Motor
Corp. that's being bought by DDI Corp., introduced cdmaOne
services nationwide in Japan last April.
``We benefited from strong demand for electronic components
and microchip parts used for mobile telecommunication terminals,
as that market expanded worldwide,'' said Michihisa Yamamoto,
Kyocera executive vice president.
Kyocera said it expects a 35 percent rise in revenue to its
all-time high of 1.1 trillion yen For the year to March 31, 2001,
on continued demand for personal computers and mobile phone
handsets worldwide.
Kyocera shares fell 1,220 yen, or 8 percent, to close at
14,070. The company released the earnings after the end of
trading in Japan.
The shares have fallen 46 percent since reaching a high of
28,000 yen on Jan. 4 following the announcement that it would buy
Qualcomm's mobile phone-making unit.
Cell Phone Boom
Kyocera's earnings have grown on the rise of mobile phone
users in Japan. Mobile phone subscribers in Japan at the end of
March exceeded fixed-phone subscriptions for the first time.
Cellular phone and so-called personal handy-phone system (PHS)
subscriptions rose to 56.9 million by March from 55.5 million at
the end of February, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
said. Fixed-phone subscriptions totaled 55.5 million as of the
end of March.
The company's microchip parts division, which includes cell
phone parts production, accounted for the largest segment of
sales, contributing 18.6 percent of revenue and 22.9 percent more
than in the previous year. Kyocera forecasts sales of this
division will rise 15 percent in the year ending March 2001.
Sales at Kyocera's telecommunication equipment division,
which includes mobile phones, rose 14.9 percent in the year ended
March and is expected to rise 70 percent in the year to March
2001.
Strong Yen
Kyocera said sales would have risen more if the yen had not
risen in value against the dollar.
The company's sales outside Japan totaled 412.4 billion yen,
or about 51 percent of total sales, up from 352.6 billion yen, or
48.6 percent, from a year earlier. The dollar bought an average
of 111.33 yen through the year, moving in a range between 101.45
yen and 124.32. In the previous year, the U.S. currency averaged
at 127.92 yen.
Kyocera said the stronger than expected yen slashed its
revenue by 67.2 billion yen.
One-Time Gains, Charges
The company posted a one-time gain of 28.2 billion yen on
the sale of a 5 percent stake in AVX Corp., the Myrtle Beach,
South Carolina-based electronic components maker. The sale
reduced Kyocera's stake in the company to 75 percent. Kyocera
sold 5.25 million shares in the U.S. unit in February at $63 a
share for $330.75 million.
Kyocera also posted a 15 billion yen charge on costs related
to its halt of services to Iridium LLC, the troubled global
mobile phone operator. It also posted a 12 billion yen one-time
loss to write-off bad debt held by its wholly owned unit, Kyocera
Leasing, which leases office automation equipment, such as fax
machines and copy machines. |
