Top News
Fri, 30 Oct 1998, 3:21am EST
Nikon Posts 1.36 Bln Yen 1st-Half Loss; Chipmakers Cut Equipment Spending
Nikon Posts 1.36 Bln Yen 1st-Half Parent Loss as Orders Decline
Tokyo, Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Nikon Corp., the world's
largest maker of machines that etch chips' circuitry on to
silicon wafers, lost money in the first half as chipmakers
worldwide trimmed spending on equipment.
The company posted a parent net loss of 1.366 billion yen
($11.8 million), or 3.69 yen a share, in the six months ended
Sept. 30, from net income of 2.637 billion yen, or 7.13 yen a
share, in the same period a year earlier. The loss, its first
since the first half of 1994, was less than the 1.5 billion yen
forecast by Toyo Keizai Inc., a financial information company.
Sales declined 13 percent to 127.6 billion yen from 146.9 billion
yen.
Nikon also forecast a 6 billion yen parent net loss for the
year and expects a 12 billion yen group net loss, its first in
six years, on sales of 340 billion yen, 8.1 percent less than
initially forecast. The company is suffering as companies such as
Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest maker of memory
chips, and Japan's six largest chipmakers slash spending on new
equipment as global orders dry up.protect their bottom lines.
Nikon's ''had a lot of problems with cutbacks in capital
investment everywhere,'' said Peter Wolff, an analyst at ING
Baring Securities (Japan) Ltd., who rates the shares a ''sell.''
''Prices are under pressure and there is evidently room for
improvement in inventory control.''
Worldwide orders for chipmaking equipment made in Japan slid
72 percent in August, the ninth straight month of decline,
indicating lower sales for months ahead for Nikon and such other
Japanese makers as Tokyo Electron Ltd. and Advantest Corp.
''The stepper market is extremely blunt,'' said Kenji Enya,
Nikon's senior managing director. ''There'll be no significant
recovery until the year through March 2001.''
Nikon, part of the Mitsubishi corporate group, made an
operating loss of 6 billion yen in the half, a reversal from a 5
billion yen profit in the same period last year, dragged down by
sales of chipmaking equipment, which fell 28 percent, Enya said.
Among few products boosting sales are Nikon's consumer
products, such as cameras and eye glasses, which are doing well
amid Japan's recession. Sales of cameras rose 6 percent in the
half thanks to strong sales of digital cameras, Enya said. Camera
sales accounted for 38 percent of revenue in the half.
Nikon, which started out in 1917 as an optical glass-maker,
also makes scanners, microscopes and other optical instruments.
Sales of its measuring and surveying instruments fell in the
half because of a slump in the construction industry, with
overall sales in the precision equipment declining 24 percent.
Korea Troubles
Nikon, which has just less than half the $3 billion world
market for stepper machines, hadn't sold a single stepper this
year in South Korea, where companies such as Samsung Electronics
are based, as of the end of September.
Equally problematic for Nikon is that sales of steppers are
falling just as new steppers are becoming more expensive to make.
Nikon, which sold 420 steppers in the year ended March 31,
is hampered by higher fixed costs incurred in making excimer-
laser steppers, which it began selling earlier this year.
Yet the company said in September it expects stepper sales
to fall 30 percent to fewer than 300 units this year, and the
value of sales to fall 20 percent.
Nikon shares fell 4 yen to 1,066. The company released its
results after Japanese exchanges closed for the day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 1998, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------
P.S. Thank you once again Scott for the Transcription !!!
Regards,
DKG
|
