Toshiba Q4 Net Profit Down 63%; Recovery Expected This Year

Japanese technology conglomerate Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday that its net profit for the three months ending March 31 declined 63 percent from a year earlier on a strong yen and weak global sales of digital products.

Toshiba said net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter plunged to 61.63 billion yen ($770 million), down from 97.66 billion yen in the same quarter last year. It also reported an operating profit of 206.65 billion yen for the fiscal year, down 14 percent from the previous year.

Last year's earthquake in Japan and the floods in Thailand also affected the company's earning by seriously disrupting supply chains.

Meanwhile, the company has said it is expecting a 45 percent rise in profit this year with increasing demand for flash memory chips used in smartphones and tablet PCs. While it expects the electronic devices division to attain 33 percent rise in operating profits, its television division continues to be weak.

The digital products division of Toshiba reported an operating loss of 28.2 billion yen in the last fiscal year, down from 289 billion yen profit in the previous year. Toshiba and its Japanese peers, which were once major players in the consumer electronics business, are facing tough competition from rivals.

The increased competition they are facing from rivals like Apple and Samsung, as well as disappointing factors like a strong yen and declining prices of TVs, are adding to their woes.

The continuing crisis in Europe, the weakness in the U.S. market and the strengthening of yen have hampered the growth of Japan's export-focused companies.

Job cuts are becoming a norm in Japan where firms are taking stringent action to trim costs and drastically refocus their businesses. Last month, Sony said it was cutting 10,000 jobs in an effort to concentrate resources on core business. But Toshiba is yet to take any such drastic measure to overcome weaknesses in the market.

Ahead of the announcement of its results, Toshiba gained 2.9 percent on the Nikkei.