Japan’s Konica Minolta Q1 net profit rises as high-end printers sell well
TOKYO
– Konica Minolta Holdings Inc reported a year-on-year rise in net
profit of 44 pct for the fiscal first quarter and increased its profit
forecasts for the first half to September because its high-end
multi-function printers are selling well globally.The maker of office
equipment and pick-up lenses used in DVD recorders and players posted a
first-quarter net profit of 10.55 bln yen, having made a net profit of
7.32 bln yen a year earlier.Operating profit increased 22 pct to 22.24
bln yen, aided by the cost-cutting. The group has announced plans to
reduce its global work force by 3,700, or about 11 pct, by next year as
part of a restructuring package.This year, Konica Minolta announced
that it would sell most of its assets for making single-lens reflex
digital cameras to Sony Corp and that it would stop making photographic
film in the second half of this fiscal year.As a result, production
costs as a percentage of sales fell to 51 pct from 52 pct a year
earlier and its sales, general and administration costs as a percentage
of revenue fell to 39.8 pct from 40.5 pct.But because the company has
withdrawn from the digital camera business, its first-quarter revenue
fell 1.1 pct to 241.27 bln yen.The growth driver in the first quarter
was brisk sales of high-end multi-function printers, with the volume of
sales of color multi-function printers surging by 76 pct.Konica Minolta
plans to boost its share of the market for office-use color
multi-function printers to over 30 pct in Europe and the US in 2008. At
present its share is 15-20 pct.The company said it now forecasts net
profit of 15.5 bln yen on revenue of 490 bln yen for the first half to
September, having previously forecast 11 bln yen in net profit on
revenue of 480 bln yen.However, it has left unchanged its forecasts for
the year to next March, projecting of net profit of 30 bln yen and
revenue of 960 bln yen, saying that it first wants to see if the
present trend will be sustained.