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To: Clarksterh who wrote (50525)	11/17/1999 2:01:00 AM
From: Kent Rattey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Technology News Wed, 17 Nov 1999, 1:55am EST Kyocera Shares Gain as 1st-Half Net Rises on Mobile Phone Growth in Japan By Yuzo Yamaguchi and Peter Poole-Wilson Kyocera Gains as 1st-Half Net Rises on Mobile Phone Growth Kyoto, Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Kyocera Corp. shares climbed as much as 11 percent after the Japanese maker of mobile phones and their parts said first-half earnings increased 29 percent thanks to healthy demand for phones. Shares in Kyocera, a maker of personal digital cellular and cdmaOne mobile phone handsets and phone components, rose as much as 1190 yen to a year-to-date high of 11,980 in early trading. With today's gains the shares have doubled this year. Sales and earnings rose in the six months ended Sept. 30 as the Kyoto-based company gains from its exposure to Japan's cell phone industry, a market expected to grow fivefold in the next 10 years. Kyocera's software to give wireless devices access to the Internet is another key product as more cell phones are used to send and receive information. ''Kyocera's cashing in on the mobile phone market, no question about it,'' said Hideki Watanabe, an analyst at HSBC Securities Japan Ltd. First-half group net income rose to 21.4 billion yen ($202 million), or 112.68 yen a share, from profit of 16.6 billion yen, or 87.25 yen a share in the same period last year. Sales increased 7.7 percent to 385.8 billion yen from 358.3 billion yen. Operating profit, or what remains after manufacturing, selling and administrative expenses are deducted, rose 40 percent to 42.3 billion yen, thanks to strong sales of high-margin phone components and products such as ceramic packaging used to insulate and protect finished microchips. Mobile Phones The strength of demand for cell phone components and handsets prompted Kyocera to raise its earnings forecast for the year ending March 31 by 20 percent. The company now expects net income of 47.9 billion yen for the period, from an initial forecast of 40 billion yen. Kyocera left unchanged its full-year sales projection of 780 billion yen, a gain of 7.5 percent. ''We can improve our earnings because we're seeing good demand for phone components,'' said Kyocera Executive Vice President Masahiro Yamamoto. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and NTT Mobile Communications Inc., the nation's dominant cell phone company, forecast the number of mobile phone users will grow to 80 million by 2010, from about 44.8 million at present. The mobile phone market will expand fivefold in that period to 21 trillion yen from 4.2 trillion yen because the average customer will probably own three handsets, they estimate. Kyocera expects its mobile phones -- including cdmaOne and PDC handsets -- to generate 110 billion yen for the full year, 34 percent more than the previous year. It sees mobile phones sales, which account for one-seventh of all revenue, growing at least 20 percent next year. The company plans to spend about half its 35 billion yen capital investment budget for its Japanese operations in the year to March to expand the production of electronic parts used in mobile phones. Kyocera would be the largest shareholder of the company formed from the expected merger of DDI Corp., the nation's third- largest phone company and IDO Corp., Japan's fourth-largest cellular phone company Kyocera has outperformed the Topix index of companies listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange this year on expectations expansion in the cell phone market will drive earnings growth.