Hi folks,
Pulled this off the newswire, fyi. Thought it might be of interest since we
hear so little from Olympus on what's going inside the company.
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Olympus Optical Co. (J.OLO or 7733) expects pretax profit for
the year ending March to fall 15 0.000000rom a year earlier to Y8.5 billion.
The
company initially forecast a 4% rise in the profit to Y10.5 billion, The
Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Saturday morning edition.
Domestic sales of endoscopes, the major source of revenues, have been
stagnant, a company source said. Export profitability will also deteriorate
sharply because of the yen's surge.
Net profit, however, is likely to rise 5% to Y5 billion due to the absence of
extraordinary loss related to ailing subsidiaries. As a result, return on
equity should remain flat at 2.7%.
The in-house yen-dollar rate will average Y118 per dollar in the half year
through Sept. 30, compared with Y134 a year earlier. Assuming a Y115 rate in
the second half against Y121 in the previous year, the yen's rise is
projected to push down fiscal 1999 revenues by Y15 billion. Overall sales,
however, are expected to rise 4% to Y267 billion on the strength of its
digital camera performance.
Digital camera sales for this fiscal year are forecast to climb more than
20%. But the gross profit margin is low amid fierce competition. Operating
profit is projected to slide 19% to Y17 billion.
Group pretax profit for this fiscal year is expected to dip 3% to Y19.5
billion despite a 3 0ain in sales to Y426 billion. Consolidated net profit
should rise 13% to a record Y10 billion.
For the half year ending September, the company sees parent-only sales
gaining 3% to Y137 billion and pretax profit skidding 30% to Y4 billion.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 03-09-99
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