Fujitsu Ltd projects a consolidated net profit of about 6 billion yen ($44.7m) for the year ended March – a drop of 87% from last year, according to The Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The poor year is being blamed on dwindling profits at the company’s semiconductor business after payment for the goodwill of Amdahl Corp and a battering in the foreign-exchange market on Southeast Asian revenue. Sinking memory chip prices also helped to make matters work in that area. Group sales are expected to be up 10% at roughly 5 trillion yen ($37.29bn), thanks to a strong corporate systems business and shrinking losses on personal computers. Consolidated operating profit is up 6% to about 190 billion yen ($1.42bn). Fujitsu is forecasting group net profit will jump to about 80 billion yen ($596.6m) in the year through March 1999. Consolidated operating profit is projected to increase 26% to 240 billion yen ($1.79bn), on sales of about 5.6 trillion yen ($41.76bn), up 12%. Figures were calculated at a rate of 134.1 yen to the dollar.
