Sharp to Cut 1,500 Jobs, Sees Deeper Loss

By HIROYUKI KACHI and DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI

TOKYO -- Sharp Corp. Wednesday forecast a deeper net loss for its fiscal year ended March 31 citing restructuring costs and an additional securities valuation loss, and said it would cut 1,500 temporary jobs.

The maker of the Aquos-brand liquid crystal display televisions said it now expects a group net loss of 130 billion yen (US$1.3 billion) for the past fiscal year, worse than the ¥100 billion loss it forecast in February.

The full-year net loss would be its first since 1950, and considerably worse than the net profit of ¥101.92 billion it posted in the previous fiscal year.

Sharp, like other Japanese electronics makers, has been battered by a precipitous slide in consumer demand and strength in the Japanese yen. The company said its results were also weighed by LCD panel inventory cutbacks and extra valuation losses on its securities holdings.

Sharp said it now expects a ¥49.7 billion loss on securities impairment, wider than a loss of ¥43.3 billion it forecast previously.

The company cut its revenue outlook for the year which ended March 31, 2008, to ¥2.850 trillion from ¥2.900 trillion. It now expects an operating loss of ¥60 billion, worse than the operating loss of ¥30 billion it predicted in February.

At a press conference, Mikio Katayama, Sharp's president and chief operating officer, said the company expects to cut costs by ¥billion in the new fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.

Despite cutting its forecasts, the Osaka-based consumer electronics maker said it will begin operations at an LCD panel manufacturing plant in Sakai, western Japan, in October. It had earlier said the plant would start operations by March 2010.

"Though the worldwide demand for LCD TVs has slowed temporarily due to the global economic recession, it is expected to further expand, notably in emerging economies such as China," Sharp said in a statement.

The LCD plant in Sakai near Osaka plans to produce panels using the industry's most advanced 10th-generation mother glass substrates, capable of producing TV panels measuring 50-inches or larger.

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"The rising job losses around the world is indeed very alarming. The effects of this loss to every family in all nations is very saddening and worrying. I hope that our world leaders will be more vigilant in doing something smart for this economic problem."