Renesas expects lower net sales for fiscal 2011

Renesas announced the following revisions to its forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012: net sales are expected to total 885.0 billion yen, 83.0 billion yen down from the previous forecast (announced on October 31, 2011); semiconductor sales are expected to total 778.0 billion yen, 83.0 billion yen down from the previous forecast. Owing to semiconductor market downturn affected by stagnant global economy and the impact of Thailand's flood as well as continuous trend of yen appreciation, semiconductor sales for the three months ended December 31, 2011 were below the company's expectation. Moreover, the company anticipates semiconductor sales for the three months ending March 31, 2012 also to fall below its expectation, mainly owing to a depressed market condition that is expected to continue during the three months ending March 31. 2012. For these reasons, Renesas has made a downward revision to its forecasts for both net sales and semiconductor sales. The company expects the sales from three product areas, MCUs, analog and power (A&P) devices and system-on-Chip (SoC) solutions; to decline from the previous forecast. For the earnings forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, despite the company's efforts on promoting cost reduction measures including cut back on personnel costs and improving development cost efficiency and production efficiency, lower profit is expected from decrease in semiconductor sales. Therefore, Renesas has revised the earnings forecasts: operating loss is expected to be 48.0 billion yen, 20.0 billion yen down from the previous forecast; ordinary loss is expected to be 54.0 billion yen, 17.0 billion yen down from the previous forecast; net loss is expected to be 57.0 billion yen, 17.0 billion yen down from the previous forecast.