Panasonic raises annual profit forecast 20%, sees strong AI demand

TOKYO, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Panasonic Holdings 6752.T raised its full-year operating profit forecast by 20% to 710 billion yen ($4.5 billion) on Friday, helped by a range of factors including stronger-than-expected AI-related demand.

• The Japanese company lifted its group operating profit forecast for the year ending March 2027 from 590 billion yen previously, raising it for the second successive quarter

• Group CEO Yuki Kusumi told reporters that AI-related demand had been stronger than expected. He added that the extent of the improvement had been a "surprise", even though he had expected some room for a further upgrade

• Factors behind the upgrade included a boost from price changes, favourable foreign exchange rates, the absence of the US tariff impact seen a year earlier and higher AI-linked sales at its Industry business

• Operating profit at its key Energy unit, which supplies electric-vehicle batteries to Tesla TSLA.O and other EV makers, surged to 55.6 billion yen in the second quarter from 1.2 billion yen a year earlier

• Panasonic also raised the unit's full-year profit forecast for the year ending March 2027 by 16% to 198 billion yen from 171 billion yen previously

• It said the unit's quarterly operating profit grew due to higher sales of EV batteries in North America and data centre energy storage systems

• The Industry business benefited from higher sales of capacitors and multilayer circuit-board materials for AI infrastructure

($1 = 157.5300 yen)