Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. posted a net loss of 72.8 billion yenmillion dollars), reversing a profit of 1.7 billion yen a year earlier, while its pre-tax loss slumped to 84.9 billion yen, against a profit of 3.3 billion yen.

"We suffered losses as we incurred huge appraisal losses on our shareholdings," a spokesman for Sanyo said, adding the losses totalled a record 71.6 billion yen.

During the previous financial year, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Nikkei-225 average dropped a staggering 3,055.99 points or 27.7 percent, wiping the value off equity portfolios.

Sanyo also attributed the dismal earnings to restructuring costs worth 16.4 billion yen.

But the firm's revenue rose 7.8 percent year-on-year to 2.18 trillion yen.

For the current year to March 2004, Sanyo forecast a net profit of 25.5 billion yen with a pre-tax profit of 59 billion yen on revenue seen at 2.45 trillion yen.

SPACE.WIRE