Toshiba Corp. reported Wednesday a group net profit of 111.3 billion yen for the first three quarters of its 2006 business year to March -- more than triple from the previous year -- led by robust earnings in the liquid crystal display, home electric appliance and nuclear reactor businesses.
Toshiba also cited one-time gains on sales of shares in its affiliates.
During the April-December period, operating profit rose 5 percent year-on-year to 121.1 billion yen on sales of 4.95 trillion yen, up 11 percent.
Sales in the firm's mainstay digital products segment, which includes televisions, personal computers and mobile phones, rose 11 percent year-on-year to 2.06 trillion yen. However, operating profit in the segment dropped nearly 50 percent from the same period of 2005 due to losses from falling prices of PCs.
Toshiba boosted sales in its infrastructure sector, which includes its nuclear reactor and power plant businesses, to 1.28 trillion yen, up 6 percent year-on-year, and had 22.2 billion yen in operating profit, up 6 percent.
The company attributed the strong performance mainly to the acquisition of Westinghouse Electric Co., a major nuclear-reactor builder in the United States.
Toshiba Executive Vice President Fumio Muraoka said getting Westinghouse will contribute 100 billion yen to the group's annual sales and several billion yen in operating profit.
Toshiba spent $4.6 billion to acquire a 77 percent stake in Westinghouse from British Nuclear Fuels PLC.
Toshiba revised its earnings forecast for the full year to March, expecting to post 7 trillion yen in sales, 250 billion yen in operating profit and 120 billion yen in net profit.
All the figures, except for operating profit, were revised upward. According to the previous forecast announced in October, the firm expected to log 6.75 trillion yen in sales, 270 billion yen in operating profit and 110 billion yen in net profit.