Sharp Corp expects its pretax profit to slump 22% to roughly 56 billion yen ($459m) in the year ending March, the first decline in five years, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports. The forecast, which is 19 billion yen lower than an earlier projection, is attributed to falling LCD panel prices and the effect of higher consumption tax on home appliance sales. Pretax profit in the six months ending September is estimated to drop 24% to 27.4 billion yen ($224.6), down 9 billion yen from an earlier estimate, on 1% sales growth to 675 billion yen ($5.53bn). Fiscal 1997 production of LCD panels will likely gain 16% to 280 billion yen ($2.3bn), far short of the company’s target of a 40% rise. Sales of home appliances are unlikely to recover significantly, the sources added. Overall sales are seen gaining 2% to 1.41 trillion yen ($11.56bn). Poor performance by the parent company is expected to cripple group earnings despite strong sales by subsidiaries in Europe and the rest of Asia.
