Panasonic: April-June net profit soars to $1.1bn

Panasonic said Wednesday its net profit soared to $1.1 billion in the three months to June, mainly due to one-off gain from a pension scheme change. The electronics giant booked a 107.8 billion yen net profit in its fiscal first quarter, a more than seven-fold increase from the 12.8 billion yen in the same quarter a year earlier. However, it also said operating profit rose 66.3 percent to 64.2 billion yen, thanks to cost cutting efforts and a weaker yen boosting the value of its overseas income. Sales inched 0.6 percent higher to 1.82 trillion yen, it said. The company kept its full-year forecast unchanged, eyeing a net profit of 50 billion yen on sales of 7.2 trillion yen in the year to March 2014. Panasonic, like rivals Sony and Sharp, has been undergoing a massive restructuring aimed at stemming record losses in recent years largely tied to their struggling electronics units. Panasonic said consumer products such as televisions and digital cameras continued to see falling sales in the quarter. On Wednesday, Panasonic said its latest gains came mainly thanks to a one-off gain of 79.9 billion yen from an accounting change tied its pension fund. Sales rose "due mainly to positive impact of yen depreciation and stable sales in housing and automotive businesses," it added. A weaker yen generally helps Japanese exporters by making their products more competitive overseas.