Toshiba reports $118 million quarterly operating loss, first in 4 years
12 Aug 2020
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Japanese industrial conglomerate Toshiba Corp on Wednesday reported an operating loss of 12.6 billion yen ($118 million) for the April-June 2020 quarter, its first quarterly operating loss in nearly four years, as the coronavirus pandemic hit demand for its electronic devices, copiers and chip-making equipment.
The company had posted an operating profit of 7.83 billion yen for the April-June quarter of the previous year.
Toshiba's core operating income during the April-June 2020 quarter, however, significantly increased to 37.9 billion yen against 9.0 billion yen in the year-ago quarter.
Toshiba last suffered a quarterly operating loss in the October-December quarter of 2016, at the peak of a crisis stemming from the failure of its US nuclear power unit Westinghouse.
Toshiba said its forecast of Covid-19 impact remained at (-) 46.0 billion yen and decided to keep impact forecast for the year unchanged at (-) 90.0 billion yen.
It maintained its annual profit forecast at 110 billion yen, down 15.7 per cent from the previous year, avoiding a major downward revision thanks to its public infrastructure businesses that are relatively resilient to a global economic slump.
Toshiba’s free cash flow during the quarter also improved significantly to 83.3 billion in April-June 2020 from 39.9 billion in the previous year quarter.
Amount of orders received during the quarter also increased 5 per cent year-on-year, the company said.
Toshiba said delays in installing semiconductor manufacturing equipment for the China market, deterioration in operation of HDDs factory and decreased demand for automobile devices, MFP and POS systems and restriction on sales activities impacted financial performance during the quarter.
