Canon reports 81.5% fall in profits

28 January 2009 14:23 GMT / By Verity Burns

Canon has reported an 81.5% fall in its quarterly profits, blaming a slow in demand for cameras and office equipment caused by the worldwide economic downturn.

Operating profit at Canon was at 35.8 billion yen (around £280 million) in October-December, a huge difference from the 193.58 billion yen (£1.5 billion) from the same period in 2007.

Canon also said its profitability was affected by considerable price falls and poor strength of the yen, which has made Japanese products less price-competitive overseas.

In sight of all this, Canon has decided to drop its forecast for 2009 to 160 billion yen, down from 496.1 billion yen forecast a year earlier.

Canon's place on the stock market is also looking unsteady, with shares in the copiers and printers side of the business losing 47% over the past year.

Full tags

Biz, Canon, Results, Cameras