Cor Boonstra announces low profits at Philips Electronics

COR BOONSTRA, president of the Dutch electronics giant Philips Electronics, at a press conference yesterday, where he announced that profits would be lower in the first two quarters of 1999 than last year, when the company enjoyed a strong start.

However, he said the second half of the year should show an improvement over 1998. The company still plans to raise profits by more than 10 per cent a year from the 1998 base of 2.7bn-2.8bn guilders (pounds 850 to pounds 880m), and achieve a return of 24 per cent on net assets. Last year's programme of share buy-backs may continue in 1999.