Fujitsu feels full force of floods in Q3 financials

Thai floods and sluggish demand take their toll as the vendor revises its projections downwards for Q4

The Thai floods had a serious impact on Fujitsu’s third-quarter results, directly causing a drop in sales.

In total the Japanese vendor reported a consolidated net loss of 4.3bn yen ($55m) for the quarter ended 31 December 2011 – a 20.8bn yen drop from the same period in 2010.

Fujitsu said the floods caused net sales to drop by 34bn yen and operating income to drop by 14bn yen in Q3.

In Japan sales actually rose by 3.8 per cent, but outside its homeland sales dropped by 10.7 per cent, with infrastructure services and server-related sales being particularly hard hit in the US and Europe.

The vendor also recorded a 2.7bn yen restructuring charge, made up of the reorganisation of its car audio and navigation systems business, and the streamlining of its services businesses in Europe.

Full-year financial projections have also been revised downwards, mainly attributed to a delay in recovery to ICT spending both inside and outside Japan, the Thai flood aftermath and lower demand for semiconductors and electronic components.

Masami Yamamoto, president of Fujitsu, said: “We are making solid progress in growing our cloud-related business and improving the profitability of our overseas ICT business. Losses from the Thai floods and from lower-than-expected market demand, however, forced us to revise our projections downwards.

"Going forward, we will continue to pursue aggressive reforms to further develop a business structure that can better withstand fluctuations in the business environment."