TOKYO (Reuters) – Panasonic Corp expects operating profit to jump by a almost a third this business year as economies worldwide rebound from coronavirus lockdown slumps, the company said on Monday.
Panasonic forecast operating profit to rise 27.6% to 330 billion yen ($3 billion) this business year. The figure is slightly higher than an average forecast of 327.56 billion based on estimates from 16 analysts, Refinitiv data shows.
The Japanese maker of items from bicycles to hair dryers is looking to tap growing demand for electric car batteries through its decade-old partnership with Tesla Inc and is investing heavily in supply chain management services.
This business year, Panasonic plans to begin a test line in Japan to make 4,680 battery cells, a source earlier told Reuters. Tesla says such a format will halve battery costs and help ramp up battery production 100-fold by 2030.
The Japanese company is also investing heavily in new production chain management services as companies strengthen supply chains in the wake of pandemic disruptions.
Last month Panasonic Corp said it would acquire the share of U.S. supply-chain software company Blue Yonder that it does not already own, in a $7.1 billion deal, its biggest in a decade.
The U.S. company uses machine learning to help firms manage supply chains linking factories to warehouses and retailers.
For the quarter that ended March 31, the Japanese industrial conglomerate posted a fourth-quarter operating profit of 31.8 billion yen ($292.09 million), down 40% from a year ago as weaker earnings from its life solutions unit, which sells lighting, equipment and materials for buildings offset rising income from automotive components.
That result was better than an estimated average profit of 20.99 billion yen from five analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
($1=108.8700 yen)
(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Jan Harvey and Clarence Fernandez)
