(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Scandal-plagued Sanyo swung back to a profit for the six months through September as strong digital camera and rechargeable battery sales offset a decline in mobile phones and home appliances.
Sanyo Electric posted 15.98 billion yen ($149 million) in net profit during the six months ended September 30. It had posted a 3.62 billion yen loss in the same period a year ago.
Sales dipped 0.4 % to 1.091 trillion ($10.17 billion) from 1.095 trillion yen.
Along with earnings, Sanyo also announced a new three-year business plan outlining steps aimed at transforming and revitalizing the company.
The plan calls for massive outlays on Sanyo's battery business and cutbacks in interest-bearing debt. Sanyo's goal is for all of its businesses to be operating in the black by the plan's completion in 2010, the company said.
Osaka-based Sanyo kept unchanged its forecasts for a return to profit for the full fiscal year ending March 2008 at 20 billion yen ($186 million) profit on 2.23 trillion yen ($20.78 billion) sales.
Sanyo did not provide quarterly results.
Sanyo has undergone a reshuffle at its top management after acknowledging earlier this year that it had falsified its fiscal 2003 earnings, in which it had reported a profit when it was in the red.
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