Sharp net loss shrinks more than 60 percent

Sharp said Friday its nine-month net loss shrank by more than 60 percent as it upgraded its full-year forecasts on structural reforms and its takeover by Hon Hai. The Japanese industrial mainstay, pummelled by huge losses and mounting debts, was formally acquired in August last year by Hon Hai, better known as Foxconn, which took a 66 percent stake for $3.7 billion.
It was the first foreign acquisition of a major Japanese electronics firm and marked a watershed for Japan's once-mighty home electronics sector, which nurtured global brands including Sony and Panasonic but has struggled in the face of foreign competition.
Sharp said that in the nine months to December its net loss shrank by 62.0 percent to 41.16 billion yen from a year earlier. It booked operating profit of 18.94 billion yen ($363.86 million), reversing the previous year's loss of 29.04 billion yen.
Sales fell 23.2 percent to 1.49 trillion yen.
"Sharp is recovering but it's still too early to declare Sharp is back," said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo. In the three months period to December, it booked a net profit of 4.2 billion yen "thanks to effects of structural reforms" implemented, it said in a statement. Sharp said it expects to report a 37.2 billion yen annual net loss in the business year ending in March, better than the previous forecast of 41.8 billion yen loss.