Panasonic Rises After Report It May Swing to Profit

By Mariko Yasu and Shunichi Ozasa - May 9, 2012 8:15 AM GMT+0700

Panasonic Corp. (6752), Japan’s largest appliance maker, rose the most in two months in Tokyo trading after the Nikkei newspaper said it may post a 50 billion yen ($626 million) profit this fiscal year.

Panasonic advanced as much as 4.9 percent, the biggest intraday gain since March 9, to 605 yen and traded at 601 yen as of 9:58 a.m. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 1.3 percent.

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Attendees watch a presentation wearing Panasonic 3D glasses. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

The Osaka-based manufacturer, which has said it may post a record 780 billion-yen loss for the year ended March 31, may return to profit this year because of restructuring, the Nikkei reported, without saying where it got the information. The 50 billion-yen projection compares with the 106 billion-yen average of 18 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Operating profit may rise to about 250 billion yen this year from 30 billion yen in the previous 12 months, the Nikkei reported. The projection compares with the 241 billion-yen average of 19 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Yuko Hosaka, a spokeswoman for Panasonic, said the company wasn’t the source of the report and that it will disclose its earnings May 11.

Panasonic’s revenue may be unchanged this year at about 8 trillion yen while television sales will probably fall below last year’s approximately 18 million units, the Nikkei said. Solar-cell sales will be buoyed by a government subsidy program, the report said.

Panasonic said in February it may post a 780 billion-yen loss for the year ended March 31, the most since the company was founded in 1918, after natural disasters disrupted production while the surging yen eroded overseas earnings and the global economy slowed.

President Fumio Ohtsubo, set to step down as president next month, has said he’s eliminating jobs, shifting output overseas and closing display factories in an attempt to transform Panasonic into a leader in solar panels and rechargeable batteries.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net; Shunichi Ozasa in Tokyo at sozasa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net