NEC Corp. is back in the black after posting 30.2 billion yen in consolidated pretax profit for the business year that ended March 31, the major computer and chip manufacturer reported Friday.

The result marks a recovery from the 224.7 billion yen loss that NEC suffered the previous year.

On a group basis, NEC posted 4.99 trillion yen in sales, up 4.9 percent from the previous year, while its operating profit soared to 110.4 billion yen from 3.1 billion yen.

The firm also reported 10.4 billion yen in net profit, recovering from a loss of 151.3 billion yen the previous year.

The sales increase was attributable to strong sales of personal computers and mobile phone handsets as well as electronics parts, such as semiconductors and liquid crystal display monitors, according to NEC officials.

On the other hand, restructuring efforts cost NEC about 120 billion yen. The firm also had to pay back 28.5 billion yen to the Defense Agency after it was discovered that the firm had inflated bills for agency contracts.

However, the company covered these expenses by selling stockholdings and real estate. The firm raised 120 billion yen from the sale of stocks and about 44 billion yen from the sale of its headquarters building in Tokyo's Minato Ward.

For the business year through March 2001, NEC expects 5.3 trillion yen in sales, 130 billion yen in pretax profit and 210 billion yen in operating profit.

Meanwhile, NEC announced that Tadahiro Sekimoto, former chairman and currently a counselor and member of the board, will resign from the board as of June 29.

Sekimoto, 73, who maintained a strong influence over the firm by serving as NEC's president and then as chairman for a total of 18 years since 1980, resigned as chairman in 1998 after the firm and its affiliates were implicated in the Defense Agency bill-padding scandal.

Sanyo names director

OSAKA -- Sanyo Electric Co. plans to appoint former Osaka University President Nobuaki Kumagai as an outside director to give "wide ranging" advice, Sanyo officials said Friday.

The appointment of Kumagai, a specialist in electronic communications engineering, will be formalized at a board meeting to be held soon after the company's general shareholders' meeting slated for late June, the officials said.

Since last June, the Osaka Prefecture-based consumer electronics maker has also had former Philippine President Corazon Aquino as an external director.

Kumagai, 70, was born in Osaka Prefecture, graduated from the engineering school of Osaka University and took the helm of the university from 1985 to 1991.

Now an honorary professor, Kumagai became an adviser last year to a technology committee under Sanyo's board, the officials said.