Shizuoka,
Japan – Worldwide sales and operating income in Yamaha’s AV/IT segment, which
includes audio and commercial karaoke equipment, rose in the company’s fiscal
first quarter despite the impact of Japan’s earthquake.
But
Yamaha reported that audio sales in North America and Europe declined by an
unspecified amount.
Yamaha
attributed its worldwide AV/IT gains to “major gains” in sales of commercial
online karaoke equipment. The company also reported “robust” audio sales in
China and other emerging markets even as North American and European sales
declined.
The
company also raised its second-quarter and full-year forecasts for consolidated
sales and net income, citing better-than-anticipated first-quarter performance
and less of an impact than expected from the earthquake.
For
its 2012 fiscal first quarter ending June 30, worldwide AV/IT sales grew 2.8
percent to 12,379 million yen ($161.5 million), and operating income rose 62
percent to 557 million yen ($7.27 million). AV/IT accounted for 14 percent of
consolidated sales of 87,928 million yen ($1.15 billion). Besides home audio
and commercial karaoke equipment, AV/IT sales include business routers.
Yamaha’s
consolidated sales, which include musical instruments and sound generators for
cellphones and amusement equipment, fell 3.3 percent to 87,928 million yen
($1.15 billion), with consolidated operating income falling 39.8 percent to
3,103 million yen ($40.5 million) and net income falling 77 percent to 504
million yen ($6.58 million). Musical instruments accounted for 76 percent of sales
in the quarter.
In
North America, consolidated sales fell 16.2 percent to 11,124 million yen
($145.2 million).
Worldwide
consolidated operating income fell in the quarter, Yamaha said, because of
foreign-currency fluctuations and declining output and shipments “caused by
difficulties in procuring parts and cutbacks in production among corporate
clients, both of which were caused by the earthquake.”
For
the full year, the company’s upwardly revised forecasts call for sales of
378,000 million yen ($4.94 billion), up 2.2 percent from the previous forecast;
operating income of 12,500 million yen ($163.3 million), up 25 percent from the
previous forecast; and net income of 6,500 million yen ($84.9 million), up 30
percent from the previous forecast.
