(Feb 5): Panasonic Holdings Corp shares soared 15% in Tokyo trading Thursday, the biggest gain since 2014, on investor confidence that a lengthy restructuring effort will start paying off next fiscal year.
The company is expanding the scale of job cuts this year to as many as 12,000, up from a previously planned 10,000, it said in earnings released Wednesday. It also posted better-than-expected quarterly operating profit.
The company said there will be ¥13 billion (US$83 million or $110 million) in additional cost savings from October, bringing total savings to ¥145 billion for the next fiscal year from fiscal 2024.
It’s “encouraging” to hear that the restructuring will benefit the bottom line in future, Ryosuke Katsura and Hajime Ono, analysts at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. said in a note to clients. “Panasonic is now in a slightly better position to reach its forecast.”
The combination of the quarterly earnings beat and Panasonic’s restructuring plans left a positive impression, Citigroup Inc analysts Masahiro Shibano and Takero Fujiwara wrote in a report.
That was enough for investors to look past an earnings downgrade for the current fiscal year. Panasonic lowered its operating profit forecast by 9.4% to ¥290 billion for this fiscal year ending March 31, citing the increased costs of the layoffs. Operating profit plunged 55% to ¥157.8 billion for the nine months ended Dec 31, while sales fell 8.1% to ¥5.88 trillion, the company said.
See also: Trillion-dollar tech wipeout ensnares all stocks in AI’s path
Many employees are “gritting their teeth” and pushing forward toward the next phase, Panasonic’s chief financial officer Akira Wani, said in a briefing Wednesday. “It would be a lie to say there has been no disruption.”
Uploaded by Chng Shear Lane
