Fujitsu reports:
Wednesday October 25, 4:34 am Eastern Time
Fujitsu reports 7-fold rise in 1st half profit
(UPDATE: Adds capital spending plan, and analyst comments)
By Reed Stevenson
TOKYO, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Fujitsu Ltd , Japan's largest computer maker, reported on Wednesday its net profit for the past half-year surged by more than seven-fold due to strong demand for its electronics devices, mainly chips.
Net profit for the six months to September totalled 17.2 billion yen ($160 million), or 8.77 yen per share, up 626 percent from 2.3 billion yen, or 1.24 yen per share, a year earlier.
That exceeded the company's own estimate of 10 billion yen. Revenue rose 1.9 percent to 2.49 trillion yen from 2.44 trillion yen a year earlier.
Strong demand for memory chips used in mobile phones and digital audio-visual products boosted its sales of semiconductors by 34 percent to 320.5 billion yen compared with the same period a year earlier, a company official said.
But despite the upbeat result for the first six months, the company slashed its net profit estimate for the full year to March 31 to 45 billion yen, against its earlier forecast of 100 billion yen and last year's 42.73 billion yen.
The company attributed the downward revision to restructuring costs at its U.S. unit, Amdahl.
Analysts, however, are sceptical about the firm's ability to achieve the revised full-year target, amid growing fears of weakening chip demand worldwide after U.S. chipmaker Intel Corp (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) cut its revenue estimate in September.
DOUBTS
``I have serious doubts as to whether Fujitsu can really achieve strong sales figures for the latter half of the year, especially as the semiconductor market isn't looking too bright any more,'' said an analyst who declined to be identified.
``The figures would have been more credible had they been more modest for the second half of the year. I think we'll be seeing a downward revision later.''
Tokyo-based Fujitsu also said it would raise its planned capital expenditure for the current business year to March by 80 billion yen ($742.6 million) to 530 billion yen on robust global demand for chips.
The rise includes a 60 billion yen increase for chip-related capital spending, it said.
Fujitsu, one of the top five Japanese chip makers, had said in April it was allocating 450 billion yen for capital expenditure, of which 160 billion yen would be used for chip production.
In May, the company raised chip expenditure by 40 billion yen, and this is included in the 80 billion yen figure.
Fujitsu's shares closed Wednesday at 2,250 yen, down 1.1 percent. Its earnings results were announced after the market closed. The stock is down 55 percent from its January peak of 5,030 yen, hit partly by a slump in U.S. high-tech shares.
Fujitsu is the first major Japanese chipmaker to announce mid-term earnings. It operates the nation's largest fixed-line Internet service provider and is also a major provider of computer system engineering, operation and maintenance services. |
