Electronics giant Philips posts Q4 loss of $211M

Royal Philips Electronics NV, the Dutch electronics manufacturer, posted a fourth-quarter loss on Monday as it wrote down overpriced inventory at its lighting arm, customers postponed purchases of its medical imaging machines, and it suffered new losses at its television business.

Chief executive Frans van Houten, who has overseen a trio of profit warnings since taking the company's top job in April and watched as Philips' share price decline by more than a third, said prospects for the first half of 2012 remain clouded due to "uncertainty in the global economy, and Europe in particular."

The net loss for the October to December period was (euro) 160 million ($211 million), compared with profit of (euro) 465 million in the same period a year ago. Revenues rose 3.3 percent to (euro) 6.79 billion.

The impact of Europe's financial crisis was evident as sales fell by 6 percent, compared to a 4 percent rise in North America and 10 percent growth in developing markets. Each accounts for about a third of Philips' total.

"Our fourth-quarter results were impacted by weak European sales, postponement in deliveries of existing orders in our health care sector, and inventory correction actions...in our lighting business," said Van Houten in a statement.

The company's most recent warning, earlier this month, took some of the sting out of Monday's loss, but analysts were still critical. Philips said it has completed just a third of a (euro) 2 billion share buyback program running from July 2011 to July 2012, and pushed its completion date back a year. Philips now has net debt of (euro) 700 million, compared to net cash of (euro) 1.2 billion at the end of 2010, after accounting for buybacks, dividends and acquisitions.