Fujitsu Revises Outlook, Expects First Loss in Six Years

Fujitsu revised down its financial outlook after the poor economic conditions caused its business in the last three months of the year to fall into the red.

The company said it now expects sales in the April to March financial year to be 7 percent lower than anticipated at ¥4.7 trillion (US$52 billion [b]), the profitability of its main operations to be ¥50 billion and, after exceptional charges and other items, to end the year ¥20 billion in the red. Fujitsu last posted a net loss in fiscal year 2002.

The company blamed poor conditions in several key markets, including personal computers, mobile phones, hard-disk drives, chips and components. The strong Japanese yen, which means lower yen-denominated profits, was also cited as a factor behind the downgrade.

Fujitsu is far from alone in revising down full-year estimates. Most other major Japanese electronics companies have done the same thing in the last few days or are expected to next week when they announce third quarter results.

For the October to December quarter Fujitsu said it lost ¥40.7 billion on sales of ¥1 trillion. In 2007 during the same period it recorded a net profit of ¥5.5 billion on sales of ¥1.2 trillion.