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Hitachi sees record $7.8 billion net loss

03 February 2009 14:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA-Economics. Hitachi Ltd. said Tuesday it suffered a loss in the September-to-December quarter and reiterated that it expects to a post a record for the largest-ever loss in Japanese corporate history for the full fiscal year, hurt by a sharp drop in overseas revenue and losses in its stock holdings, MarketWatch reports.
Hitachi said its net loss for the third fiscal quarter totaled 371 billion yen ($4.14 billion), compared to a 12.5 billion net profit a year earlier. Revenue fell 16% to 2.261 trillion yen, from 2.707 trillion yen.
Hitachi shares ended higher ahead of the after-hours announcement, rising 6.2% to 259 yen.
The electrical-machinery conglomerate said losses for the full year ending March 31 would total 700 billion yen ($7.8 billion), mainly because of restructuring costs and losses at its memory-chip unit.
For the fiscal year ending March 31, Hitachi expects a net loss of 700 billion yen.
Hitachi said overseas revenue for the quarter declined 20% to 959.1 billion yen. Losses related to declines in shareholdings, the impact of the stronger yen and write-downs of securities amounted to 159.1 billion yen.
The full-year loss would put Hitachi on track to top the 684 billion-yen loss recorded by Nissan Motor Co in March 2000 as the biggest on record.
Hitachi said it was anticipating an average exchange rate of 90 yen to the U.S. dollar and 120 yen against the euro throughout the final fiscal quarter.
The company said it will seek 200 billion yen in savings by shutting down unprofitable businesses and streamlining factories overseas and in Japan.