Toshiba profit down 46.5% to $921m

Japan's Toshiba said Tuesday its full-year net profit dropped by almost half to $921 million on a strong yen, weak digital product sales, and last year's natural disasters in Japan and Thailand. Toshiba said net profit was 73.7 billion yen in the fiscal year to March, down 46.5 percent from 137.8 billion yen a year earlier. However, it predicted that net profit would bounce back in the current fiscal year. Operating profit for the latest period fell 14.0 percent to 206.6 billion yen on sales of 6.1 trillion yen, down 4.7 percent, it said. The company booked gains on strong sales of electric devices and social infrastructure products, such as street lights, said Toshiba, whose operations range from consumer electronics to nuclear power plants. But the firm's overall profit fell "due to a fluctuation in the foreign exchange and the impact of the earthquake disaster and floods in Thailand as well as the deterioration of digital products," it said. Toshiba's earnings have improved since last fiscal year when it booked a profit for the first time in three business years. But it slashed its full-year net profit forecast in January by more than half, blaming the yen's strength and losses in its television business. Japanese firms were also pounded by last year's quake-tsunami disaster as well as flooding in Thailand, which disrupted operations for firms with plants in the Southeast Asian nation. Electronics manufacturers worldwide are struggling to profit from making TVs amid fierce price competition in the overcrowded, low-margin market. Japanese firms were also hit hard by sluggish TV demand at home, after record sales last fiscal year thanks to a temporary subsidy as the country shifted to digital terrestrial broadcasting from an analogue system. A strong yen hurt Japanese exporters' bottom line by making exports less competitive in foreign markets. Toshiba forecast a sales and profit rise for the current fiscal year to March 2013, projecting group net profit at 135.0 billion yen and operating profit at 300.0 billion yen on sales of 6.4 trillion yen.