Sharp Corp. said Friday it expects its group net profit in fiscal 2011 to fall 69.1 percent from the previous year to ¥6 billion due to restructuring costs to shift its production to small and medium-size liquid-crystal display panels.
The Osaka-based company, known as the maker of the Aquos brand flat-screen television sets, said it expects to post group sales of ¥3.05 trillion in the current fiscal year to next March 31, up 0.9 percent from fiscal 2010. It plans to book a group operating profit of ¥97 billion, up 22.9 percent from the previous year.
In addition to a special loss of ¥9 billion stemming from restructuring in the LCD business, Sharp also plans to set aside ¥27 billion in extraordinary losses resulting from the suspension of operations at large-LCD plants, the firm said.
While its domestic sales of LCD TVs are expected to decline in the current fiscal year, it aims to cover the loss by selling LCD panels for mobile products such as smartphones and TVs in overseas markets.
Sharp said it will start shifting production from large LCD panels with sizes of less than 60 inches to smaller ones amid growing demand for smartphones and tablet computers.