KONICA-MINOLTA FALLS DEEP INTO THE "RED"

[Anonymous]

Konica Minolta Shares Have Biggest Drop in Almost Five Years
Konica Minolta falls deep in red as it exits cameras
TOKYO
: Japan’s Konica Minolta said Thursday that it had fallen even deeper
into loss in the year to March than expected as it overhauls its
operations in response to falling sales of traditional film
cameras.Konica Minolta Holdings Inc, which in January announced plans
to stop all camera production, swung to a full-year net loss of 54.31
billion yen (488.35 million dollars) from a profit of 7.52 billion a
year earlier.The company had previously forecast an annual net loss of
47 billion yen.Operating profit climbed 23.4 percent to 83.42 billion
yen on revenue of 1.07 trillion yen, up 0.1 percent, Konica Minolta
said in a statement.The group, formed through the 2003 merger of Konica
and Minolta, has previously announced plans to reduce its global
workforce by 3,700 or about 11 percent by 2007 under a restructuring
package.Konica Minolta is selling part of its business making
single-lens reflex digital cameras to Sony and will also gradually stop
making camera film by 2007 to focus on its more profitable optics and
medical imaging activities.The company forecast a return to the black
in the year to March 2007 when it expects a net profit of 30 billion
yen on revenue of 980 billion yen.

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May 15, 2006 at 10:33 AM