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Tokyo / AFP
Japanese electronics maker Sharp said on Thursday it suffered a $2.3 billion annual loss and released no forecast for the current business year as it assesses the impact of its acquisition by Taiwan’s Hon Hai.
The Osaka-based also said an executive of Hon Hai, the world’s biggest electronics supplier, will take over as president.
In March, Sharp agreed to the buyout that will see Hon Hai, better known as Foxconn, take a 66 percent stake for $3.5 billion after the Japanese industrial mainstay was pummelled by huge losses and mounting debts.
It was the first foreign acquisition of a major Japanese electronics firm and marked a watershed for Japan’s once-mighty home electronics sector, which nurtured global brands including Sony and Panasonic but has struggled in the face of foreign competition. Sharp said its net loss for the year to March swelled to 256.0 billion yen ($2.3 billion) from 222.3 billion yen the year before.
Sales fell 11.7 percent to 2.5 trillion yen, while its operating loss ballooned to 162.0 billion yen from 48.1 billion yen in the red a year earlier.