Casio lowers earnings projection on drop in cellphone market share

Casio Computer Co. said Thursday it has lowered its sales and profit projections for fiscal 2007, blaming the revision on a drop in its share of the domestic market for mobile phones and falling unit prices of thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal devices.

In the revised group earnings projection for the year to next March 31, Casio forecasts a net profit of 17 billion yen and a pretax profit of 31 billion yen on sales of 610 billion yen, compared with the corresponding figures of 28 billion, 48 billion and 650 billion yen in the August forecast.

The Tokyo-based company noted intensified competition in the domestic market for cellphones and failure to procure enough materials for certain handset models in the first half of the current fiscal year.

As a result, Casio also revised its profit and sales projections for the fiscal first half downward to a net profit of 5 billion yen, a pretax profit of 10.5 billion yen and sales of 290 billion yen from the respective August estimates of 13 billion, 22.5 billion and 310 billion yen.

In fiscal 2006, Casio booked a net profit of 25.15 billion yen and a pretax profit of 41.43 billion yen on sales of 620.77 billion yen.