Japanese electronic giant Sharp Corporation, which is in financial doldrums, has quelled speculation that it was going to exit solar business. Kazushi Mukai, the head of Sharp’s energy unit, told reporters on Monday that it would not sell the business although it was a loss-making venture.
Mukai told Reuters that the company was planning to return to profit in the next fiscal. The company has forecast loss of 5 billion yen for the unit this fiscal and added that the loss was primarily due to the decline of the yen than the fundamental structure of the business.
“We are currently undergoing fundamental structural reforms for the recovery of the profitability of solar business,” Mukai further said.
Earlier this year, Sharp sold its US-based project development subsidiary Recurrent Energy to Canadian Solar for $265 million.
Recurrent had developed and sold more than 680 megawatts of projects in the US and Canada, and also had more than 4.3 gigawatts under development when it was sold.
The Sharp subsidiary had recorded 97 percent decline in profit in the first fiscal quarter of 2014.
Recurrent was purchased by Sharp in 2010 for $305 million. Selling the unit was meant to help the company raise capital.
Last week, Sharp said it was working on a new medium-term management plan for the entire company that would be revealed “around May”.
Ajith Kumar S