Japan's Olympus on Tuesday cut its full-year earnings forecast citing
weak demand for digital cameras as the troubled company looks to jump
back to profitability after an embarrassing accounting scandal.
The
camera and medical equipment maker said it now expected a net profit of
6.0 billion yen ($64 million) in the fiscal year to March, down from an
earlier 8.0 billion yen forecast.
Sales would be 740 billion yen, down 2.2 percent from a previous estimate.
However,
for October-December, Olympus said it booked a net loss of 391 million
yen, well below a 756 million yen net loss in the same quarter a year
earlier. Quarterly sales were 26 percent lower at 155.46 billion yen, it
said.
Olympus lost 48.99 billion yen in its previous fiscal year
as it accounted for a scandal that saw it move about $1.7 billion in
investment losses off its books, sparking lawsuits and the arrest of
former executives.
The company has announced a major corporate overhaul that includes cutting about seven percent of its workforce.
Electronics
giant Sony has said it will invest 50 billion yen in Olympus as it
looks to heal its own battered balance sheet by tapping the lucrative
medical equipment market.
Although best known for cameras, Olympus
dominates the global market for endoscopes, which are used for internal
medical examinations, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the market.