Japan's Sharp reported its second straight quarterly loss, hit by weak TV demand, price falls and restructuring costs, but forecast a return to profitability despite market expectations of another year of red ink.
Sharp suffered slumping sales of flat TVs and mobile phones as the global financial crisis made consumers tighten their purse strings.
The cost of closing some of its LCD production lines also weighed on its performance.
Sharp, which makes Aquos brand LCD TVs, forecast an operating profit of 50 billion yen ($516.9 million) for the year to March 2010.
The company plans to start production at the world's first panel plant that processes so-called 10th-generation glass substrates in October.
The large substrates can yield more panels than smaller, earlier-generation substrates, helping Sharp offer more competitively priced display panels and LCD TVs.
Sharp's operating loss was 90.4 billion yen in January-March, down from a 52.65 billion yen profit a year earlier.
For the full year that ended March 31st, it posted an operating loss of 55.48 billion yen, its first-ever annual operating loss.
Prior to the announcement, shares in Sharp closed down 0.6 per cent at 1,106 yen, underperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index, which rose 0.6 per cent.
Sharp shares gained 75 per cent from the start of the year to Friday, helped by comments by President Mikio Katayama earlier this month that panel demand was recovering strongly and it would start the new panel plant in October.
Reuters