Fujitsu swings to H1 profit on software services

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Fujitsu Ltd said on Thursday it swung to a profit in the first half, buoyed by its software services business and strong telecoms-related demand, but it stood by its full-year outlook.

Fujitsu competes with International Business Machines Corp and Electronic Data Systems Corp in the computer and software services business, an area that had repeatedly caused the company to post special losses. But profitability has improved after careful screening of new projects.

Fujitsu's results were also boosted by the robust performance of its chip package unit, Shinko Electric Industries Co Ltd, and brisk sales of base stations to NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's dominant mobile phone operator.

The chips-to-computers conglomerate posted a group net profit of 7.67 billion yen (US$66.18 million) in the six months to September, reversing an 8.16 billion yen loss a year earlier.

Sales dipped 1.2 percent to 2.19 trillion yen.

Fujitsu, Japan's fourth-largest electronics conglomerate, effectively withdrew from its loss-making flat-panel businesses earlier this year to focus on computer services, hardware and microchip operations -- another earnings booster for the company.

For the year to March 2006, Fujitsu maintained its net profit forecast of 50 billion yen. That is up 57 percent from a year earlier but still below the consensus of 56.39 billion yen in a poll of 19 analysts by Reuters Estimates.