Olympus swings to net loss first nine months of fiscal year

Medical equipment sales went favorable, but profit margins of the Imaging, Life Science, and Information Systems Business units were weighed down by the strong yen. Amortization costs arising from the management integration of the U.K.-based medical equipment firm Jyrus Corp. also affected its profit profile for the period.

Sales of the Imaging business unit handling digital cameras dropped 25.6 percent year-on-year to Yen 188.5 billion (Euro 1.65 billion) and operating profit plunged 88 percent to Yen 3.69 billion (Euro 32 million). Sales of digital cameras stood at Yen 172.6 billion (Euro 1.51 billion), down 26 percent.

Revenue from the Medical Equipment business unit dropped to Yen 289.8 billion (Euro 2.61 billion) and its operating profit went down 27 percent to Yen 54.2 billion (Euro 474 million). The Life Science business unit posted an operating profit of Yen 2.5 billion (Euro 21.8 million) on sales of Yen 88 billion (Euro 771.1 million), but the information/communications business unit posted an operating loss of Yen 269 million (Euro 2.35 million) on sales of Yen 137.4 billion (US$1.19 billion).

In the wake of those results, Olympus revised its outlook for the full fiscal year ending March to a net loss of Yen 45 billion (Euro 393.8 million) from the previously forecast net profit of Yen 19 billion (Euro 166 million), on total sales of Yen 980 billion (Euro 8.6 billion), down 13 percent year-on-year and 7 percent from its previous outlook in November.