(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Japanese electronics giant Sharp said on Friday it saw a small profit in the first half of its fiscal year and forecast it will stay the black for the next six months as it tries to overcome years of record losses.
The Osaka-based company, a key Apple supplier and leader in screens for smartphones and tablets reported a net profit of 4.7 billion yen ($43 million) for April-September, reversing its net loss of 4.3 billion yen a year earlier.
Sales slipped 1.1 percent to 1.32 trillion yen, while operating profit was down 13.6 percent from a year ago, it said.
The latest net profit figure was largely due to a one-time gain rather than a significant uptick in the firm's business, Sharp said.
But "we also pursued management improvement on a company-wide basis, including an inventory optimisation, radical cuts in total costs and structural reform in Europe", it said in a statement.
Sharp added that it was still on track to book a 30 billion yen net profit for the full year to March.
Rivals Sony and Panasonic also report their half-year earnings Friday, as Japan's electronics giants scratch their way back to profitability.
The trio have ushered in huge restructuring plans in recent years to climb out of the red after the sector was battered by fierce competition from lower-cost rivals and losses in the television business caused by falling prices and a shrinking domestic market.
A sharp drop in the yen since late 2012 has offered a lifeline by inflating the value of profits repatriated from overseas while the firms slim down their vast operations.
But analysts have warned that the impact of the weak yen is fading, and the industry giants had more work to do on reinventing themselves.
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