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Monday, 30th January 2012
In Business In Japan, General Japan News,
Canon posts rise in net profits
Japanese technology company Canon has reported a rise in its full year net profits.
The digital camera and office equipment manufacturer said its profit was up by 0.8 per cent, rising from 246.6 billion yen (£2 billion) to 248.6 billion yen for the year to December 2011, even though sales dropped by four per cent to 3.56 trillion yen, reports Agence France-Presse.
Canon revealed that Japan's strong currency, which set several post-1940s high against the US dollar in 2011, cost it 83.3 billion yen at the operating profit level.
The company predicts that for the current year to December 2012, there will be further recovery in spite of ongoing concerns over the debt crisis plaguing several countries within the eurozone and the general unstable global economic climate.
Canon expects to gain 250 billion yen in net profit for the year and 390 billion yen in operating profit on sales of 3.75 trillion yen.
In a statement, the company told Agence France-Presse: "It was an extremely tough year for our group's businesses because of historic highs for the yen on top of the [March] earthquake disaster and floods [in Thailand].
"But because of cost-cutting efforts, our corporate structure has been strengthened further. For the second half, we recovered from a sizable business slump resulting from the disaster while absorbing the impact of the floods and the yen's appreciation."
Japanese camera and film manufacturer Fujifilm recently announced plans to join forces with Olympus. Amid a slump in its third quarter profits, the company said it would be seeking a corporate alliance of both companies' medical operations.
Fujifilm's third quarter sales fell to 451.25 billion yen from 462.63 billion in the previous year, with operating profit falling to 26.5 billion yen, down from 36.60 billion a year earlier, despite strict cost controls.
Written by Mark Smith
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