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Komatsu Falls to Nine-Week Low; Deeper Profit Decline Forecast

Other News Materials 26 January 2009 06:25 (UTC +04:00)

Komatsu Ltd., the world's second- biggest maker of earthmoving equipment, fell to a nine-week low in Tokyo trading after the company forecast a deeper profit decline on slowing construction in emerging markets, Bloomberg reported.

The shares fell as much as 6 percent to 897 yen, the lowest since Nov. 21, and traded at 903 yen as of 10:30 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Goldman Sachs Japan Ltd. analyst Kunio Sakaida cut his 12- month price target to 700 yen from 1,100 yen after the Jan. 23 profit warning. Net income in the year ending March 31 will probably fall to 110 billion yen ($1.24 billion), from the 190 billion yen forecast on Oct. 29, Tokyo-based Komatsu said in last week's statement. The latest forecast is a 47 percent decline from last year's results.

The effect of the financial crisis has spread to the global construction market, triggering sudden declines in sales in China and other emerging markets, the company said last week. It had previously expected growth in those regions would be strong enough to offset declines in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

Komatsu is forecasting sales of 2.03 trillion yen, down 15 percent from its October estimate. Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, will be 200 billion yen instead of the forecast 300 billion yen.

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