Konica reports robust profits November 05, 2007 09:18 by John Sollars

In Tokyo last week, Konica Minolta Holdings Inc posted a 23 percent rise in half-year operating profit on robust sales of its multi-functional printers and flat TV components, and it raised its annual outlook to match market expectations.

Konica Minolta, battling with Canon Inc, Xerox Corp and Ricoh Co Ltd in the office equipment market, enjoyed robust demand for its high-speed multi-functional printers, which often have copy, printer and fax functions.

For the year to March, the Tokyo-based company raised its operating profit forecast by 10.5 percent to a record 116 billion yen ($1 billion), roughly in line with a consensus of a 115.6 billion yen profit in a poll of 15 analysts by Reuters Estimates.

The new forecast would be up 11.5 percent from a year earlier.

Konica Minolta, created in 2003 through the merger of camera and office gear makers Konica Corp and Minolta Co in a bid to enter the top ranks of office equipment manufacturers, also benefitted from strong demand for triacetyl cellulose (TAC) film.

Konica Minolta and Fujifilm Holdings Corp are the only two major producers of TAC film, which protects the polarisation plate used in liquid crystal display panels.

"TAC film (demand) hit a bottom in the (fiscal) first quarter, and it has been on a recovery path ever since," Konica Minolta Senior Executive Officer Yasuo Matsumoto told a news conference on Thursday.

Operating profit came to a record 57.06 billion yen in the April-September fiscal first half, beating the company's own forecast of 48 billion yen and up from a 46.26 billion yen profit a year earlier.

Net profit jumped 67.2 percent to 37.64 billion yen on sales of 524.96 billion yen, up 6.3 percent.