Sharp posts impressive profits

By Kiyoshi Takenaka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sharp Corp. posted a record profit for the fiscal first half on Wednesday, driven by robust flat TV demand, and it stood by its full-year forecast that came roughly in line with market expectations.

Sharp, which competes with Sony Corp., Philips Electronics and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in the liquid crystal display (LCD) TV market, enjoyed strong sales of its Aquos brand flat televisions.

The Osaka-based company also benefited from the strong performance of its mobile phone business as users snatched up its TV phones. Sharp took the top spot in domestic mobile phone shipments in April-September.

Group operating profit rose 20.1 percent to 90.2 billion yen ($756 million) in the six months to September. Sales rose 9.7 percent to a record 1.47 trillion yen.

Sharp, once the undisputed leader in the global LCD TV market, lost its top spot late last year due to a shortage of panel supplies.

In a bid to meet fast-growing flat TV demand and boost its presence overseas, where Sharp's LCD TVs are overshadowed by models from Sony and Samsung, Sharp brought onstream a cutting-edge LCD plant in Kameyama, western Japan, in August.

The $3 billion plant is the world's first to cut panels from eighth-generation glass substrates, which can yield eight 40-inch class panels, compared with three panels from the sixth-generation glass used at the first Kameyama plant, cutting per-unit production costs sharply.

"We started selling 46-inch and 52-inch full high-definition models this month using panels from the new plant," Sharp Corporate Senior Executive Vice President Hiroshi Saji told a news conference.

"We now have a strong lineup of large-sized TVs necessary to boost our overseas market share."

With 10.8 percent of the global market, Sharp was the world's fourth-largest LCD TV maker by sales in April-June, trailing Sony, Samsung and Philips, according to research firm DisplaySearch.

Saji said Sharp plans to decide on details of its next LCD plant by August of next year. He gave no details of the plant's location or the company's budget for it.

For the year to March, Sharp maintained its operating profit forecast of 180 billion yen, up 10 percent on the year. That would be a record full-year profit for Sharp and compares with the consensus of 181 billion yen in a poll of 20 analysts by Reuters Estimates. Shares in Sharp closed down 1.4 percent at 2,070 yen ahead of the announcement, slightly underperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index , which fell 1.1 percent.

The stock lost 3 percent in the April-September period, compared with a 4 percent slide in the sub-index.