Hitachi, Sharp pledge business turnaround to shareholders+

TOKYO, June 23 Kyodo -
Electronics makers Hitachi Ltd. and Sharp Corp. joined a string of major
Japanese companies Tuesday apologizing at their respective annual shareholders'
meetings for their disappointing earnings performance for fiscal 2008 amid the
global economic slump and pledging anew to recover profitability.

''The business environment is very tough, and against this backdrop, Hitachi
will make all-out efforts to bail itself out of this situation by making
structural changes to swiftly recover and grow,'' President Takashi Kawamura
said at the outset of the shareholders' meeting in Tokyo.
Kawamura also apologized for the firm being unable to pay a year-end dividend
and sought shareholders' cooperation and understanding of its upcoming measures
to turn around its dismal financial performance.
Hitachi had reported a group net loss of 787.34 billion yen for fiscal 2008
that ended in March, marking its worst net loss and a third straight year of
red ink, partly due to slumping demand for its flat-panel televisions.
As part of its structural changes, Hitachi will concentrate its resources on
profitable social infrastructure businesses, including nuclear power reactors,
while spinning off its struggling auto parts and television operations into
separate companies.
In Osaka, Sharp President Mikio Katayama made a similar apology and promised to
do better after the company fell into the red for the first time in 59 years
with a group net loss of 125.82 billion yen in fiscal 2008.
This was in stark contrast to the previous business year's 101.92 billion yen
profit.
In order to overcome its sluggish earnings performance at an early date, Sharp
executives told shareholders about the company's strategy to speed up
manufacturing and sales overseas of its liquid crystal display panels, a key
business field for the firm, in view of robust overseas demand.
Katsuhiko Machida, Sharp's chairman, also said at the shareholders' meeting,
''We cannot bring out our competitiveness if we do not manufacture in the four
emerging (BRIC) economies.''
The shareholders' meetings of Hitachi and Sharp came amid a spate of similar
such meetings which began in full swing this week. Many shareholders have been
voicing their discontent over the firms' inefficient management and lack of a
sense of crisis.
==Kyodo