Japan's NEC sees losses narrow

Japanese high-tech giant NEC said Thursday its net loss narrowed to $380 million in the April-June quarter in the absence of restructuring-related losses that caused a deep net loss a year earlier. The company's net loss shrank to 29.7 billion yen ($380 million) in the first quarter from 43.1 billion yen a year earlier. The operating loss fell to 19.4 billion yen from 23.2 billion yen, due partly to cost cuts. Sales edged up 0.2 percent to 669.1 billion yen as revenue from NEC's "carrier network business", including wireless communications equipment and cable television systems, rose 12.9 percent. NEC, which provides technology services and makes computers and electronic devices, was mired in the red the year before due partly to one-off losses incurred by the reorganisation of its semiconductor operations. A net loss for the most recent quarter also indicates that NEC's mainstay businesses such as IT services remain weak. Revenue from IT services fell 2.3 percent in the quarter. The firm expects to stay in the red in the first half of the current business year to March 2012 but kept its full-year profit forecasts of 15 billion yen in net profit and 90 billion yen in operating profit on sales of 3.3 trillion yen. NEC expects the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami to reduce its revenue by 16 billion yen in the July-September quarter and operating profit to fall by eight billion yen, Dow Jones Newswires reported.