As a stronger yen wiped out gains from brisk sales of digital cameras, Nikon Corp. said on August 6 that profits declined 23% in the fiscal first quarter. Net profit was 17.95 billion yen (US$166 million) for the three months through June. Operating profit slid 20.5% to 28.72 billion yen, partly due to higher advertising and sales costs.
Revenue rose 6.4% to 237.87 billion yen, supported by strong demand for digital single-lens reflex and compact cameras, despite a cooling global economy, Nikon said.
Sales in the company's camera division rose 14%. Nikon sold 820,000 single lens reflex (SLR) digital cameras in the first quarter, up 7.9% from a year earlier. Compact digital cameras sales increased by 34% to 2.72 million units.
For the full fiscal year to March, the company kept its forecast for net profit to increase 3.3% to 78 billion yen as revenue rises 2.5% to 980 billion yen.
The company also announced on August 6 it will invest 35 billion yen to boost production of stepper machines used to make semiconductors.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008
