Panasonic Corp. aims to quadruple sales of components used in energy-saving systems and mobile devices to ¥450 billion in the five years ending in March 2016, the head of the business said Monday.

Panasonic, forecasting a record ¥780 billion loss for the year ending on March 31, plans to sell more image sensors used in portable gadgets such as smartphones and film capacitors used in electric vehicles, Toshiaki Kobayashi, president of Panasonic's components unit, told reporters in Osaka, where the company is based.

President Fumio Ohtsubo is cutting jobs and closing factories as the maker of Viera televisions loses money on TVs and semiconductors. The components unit generated about ¥1.5 trillion in revenue in the year that ended last March, Kobayashi said, declining to provide a forecast for unitwide sales.

Telecommunication components accounted for about 36 percent of unit revenue, while audiovisual products accounted for about 23 percent, he said.

Kobayashi declined comment on whether the company is considering spinning off its chip operation. Panasonic, Fujitsu Ltd. and Renesas Electronics Corp. may agree next month to merge their large-scale chip operations by March 2013, the Nikkei newspaper reported Feb. 8, without citing anyone.