TCL Corp., one of China’s largest homegrown television and mobile phone producers, said it returned to profitability in the third quarter but still expected to post a loss for the full year.

The company posted a net profit of 31.02 million Yuan (US$3.93 million) in the July-September period, swinging from a 446.36 million Yuan loss a year earlier.

TCL said it achieved a “breakthrough” in the third quarter by improving margins, introducing new products such as flat-panel TVs, and restructuring European assets it obtained through joint ventures with Thomson and Alcatel.

Although sales slipped to 11.25 billion Yuan from 12.11 billion Yuan, largely because of a 14 percent drop in total TV sales volume, operating profit on core business climbed to 1.75 billion Yuan from 1.44 billion Yuan.

TCL said it achieved an operating margin of 16.36 percent on its television business and 22.25 percent on mobile phones, without giving comparisons.

Mobile phone sales volume in China, where TCL faces tough competition from foreign and local makers, shrank 38 percent from a year earlier to 560,000 phones. But sales overseas jumped 48 percent to 2.21 million phones.

However, TCL said it still expected to post a loss for the full year because first-half losses had been so large. In the first half of this year, TCL reported a net loss of 737.56 million Yuan, after a loss of 320.24 million Yuan for 2005.

Source:佚名