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Advantest profit up 120 pct, sees slow growth ahead
Tue Apr 26, 2005 02:08 AM ET
TOKYO, April 26 (Reuters) - Japan's Advantest Corp. (6857.T: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a doubled full-year group net profit on Tuesday, but warned that growth was expected to slow this year as chip makers remained cautious about capital spending.

Advantest, the world's largest maker of chip-testing equipment, reported a group net profit of 38.08 billion yen ($360.2 million) for the year ended March 31, calculated under U.S. accounting rules, against 17.33 billion yen the year before.

The result came in below the consensus estimate of 39.1 billion yen produced in a poll of 22 analysts by Reuters Estimates.

But Advantest forecast a consolidated net profit of 37 billion yen for the current year to March 2006, against a consensus estimate of 35.20 billion yen.

Shares in Advantest, one of the most actively traded high-tech stocks in Japan, lost 3.6 percent in the last business year to March, compared with a 7.3 percent fall in Tokyo's electric machinery index . ($1=105.70 Yen)