Panasonic’s quarterly profit jumped 24 percent, driven by strong sales of flat-panel TV’s, auto components and solar panels that offset damage from a strong yen.
The Osaka-based maker of Viera plasma Tv’s and Lumix Digital cameras on Wednesday reported 39.98 billion Yen ($490 million) in profit for the October-December quarter, up from 32.36 Yen billion the year before. The solid results came despite the damage from a strong yen, severe price drops in gadgets and soaring material costs.
Quarterly sales for the Japanese electronics maker climbed 21 percent to 2.285 trillion yen ($28 billion). Both results were in line with analyst expectations as surveyed by FactSet. Panasonic ad strong sales both in Japan and abroad, helped by a gradual global recovery, but also by economic stimulus spending in several countries, including rebates for green gadgets in Japan. The company stated that it was well on its way to completing the acquisition of Sanyo Electrical Co. into a wholly owned subsidary, by the end of April’11 and hoped to gain synergy through this merger.
