A man looks at Panasonic Corp's Viera televisions displayed at an electronics store in Tokyo.Reuters
TOKYO: Panasonic said Thursday it swung back to profit for the six months to September and doubled its full-year earnings forecast thanks to a weak yen and cost-cutting as it undergoes a huge overhaul.
The electronics giant booked a 169.3 billion yen or $1.72 billion net profit for the period, reversing a net loss of 685.2 billion yen a year earlier.
Panasonic recovering from combined losses topping $15 billion in the past two fiscal years revised upward its forecast for the year to March 2014, expecting a 100 billion yen net profit from its earlier estimate of 50 billion yen.
It now projects annual sales at 7.4 trillion yen compared with a 7.2 trillion yen earlier forecast, with full-year operating profit seen at 270 billion yen against an earlier estimate of 250 billion yen.
Japan's electronics giants, including Sony and Sharp, have been undergoing painful restructuring aimed at stemming years of record losses largely tied to their electronics units.
The sector struggled to compete against lower-cost foreign rivals and has been left behind by US giant Apple and South Korea's Samsung in the global smartphone market. (AFP)
