Sharp Corp., the supplier of displays for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad, plans to sell its investments in other companies and factories to extend capital boosting reforms.
Sharp will also continue seeking partners to buy a stake in itself, President Kozo Takahashi told reporters Monday in Osaka. The company is pursuing reforms announced last May and hopes to fetch higher prices for plants after improving its financial situation following a public equity offering that raised ¥113.8 billion last year, the first since 1979.
Sharp posted its first quarterly profit since 2011 in the three months that ended in September as it benefited from rising demand for solar panels in Japan. The company's liquid-crystal display unit also turned profitable in the period on rising sales after it sold shares to potential LCD buyers, including Samsung Electronics Co., the world's biggest TV maker.
"Our structural reform isn't over yet," said Takahashi, who is also the company's chief executive officer. "We have idle facilities and stock holdings that can be cashed out to boost our capital base."
Takahashi said the company will likely meet its target of reducing fixed costs by ¥150 billion in the year ending in March.