Fujifilm quarterly profit up 25 percent

Fujifilm Holdings Corp., Tokyo, Japan, said profit rose 24.7 percent for the three months ended in September on rising demand for flat panel display materials and office equipment sales, reports The Associated Press. According to Fujifilm, surging demand in Europe and especially Asia offset slight declines in Japan and the Americas during the quarter.

Fujifilm posted a net income of ¥23.68 billion (US$206 million) for the July-September period, versus ¥19 billion the same quarter in the previous year. Sales rose 3.6 percent to ¥623 billion (US$5.43 billion) for the period, up from ¥602 billion a year before, the company said in a statement.

By segment, sales jumped 11.5 percent in the information solutions segment, which includes medical equipment and flat panel display materials. Sales also rose 1.9 percent for multifunction copier-printer-fax machines and other document processing devices. The figures helped offset a 6.2 percent sales decline in the Imaging Solutions segment focused on digital cameras, photo film materials, minilabs, and other processing equipment.

Fujifilm said revenue rose 4.1 percent to ¥1.408 trillion for the six months ending on Sept. 30, 2007, compared to revenue of ¥1.352 trillion in the previous year's six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2006. Net income jumped 141.6 percent to ¥64.6 billion for the April-September period, up from ¥23.8 in the previous year's six-month period.

The Imaging Solutions business segment posted consolidated revenue for the six-month period at ¥291.7 billion, down 5 percent due to declining demand for color films and digital minilabs, as well as a decrease in sales from photo processing labs' development services. Fujifilm said, however, color paper sales grew and sales of digital cameras remained strong.

Fujifilm left its outlook unchanged at a group net profit of ¥120 billion on group sales of ¥2.850 trillion.