Toshiba, Japan's leading chip maker, posted a 14 per cent drop in annual operating profit, hit hard by a strong yen and slower demand due to the euro zone debt crisis.

Operating profit fell to 206.65 billion yen (€1.9 billion) in the year ended March 31st, the electronics company said today. That was a whisker below the consensus estimate of 208.7 billion yen in a survey of 22 analysts.

Toshiba said demand for its television sets and personal computers has remained weak, although the appetite for its flash memory chips from Apple has increased.

For this fiscal year, Toshiba forecast operating profit may jump 45 per cent to 300 billion yen, boosted by demand for Apple's iPhones and iPads.

The profit outlook was above the mean estimate of 281.9 billion yen in a poll of 22 analysts.

Shares in Toshiba, which competes with Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor Inc in semiconductors and with GE and Areva in nuclear reactors, are up about 1 per cent so far this year, compared with a rise of around 8 per cent in the benchmark Nikkei.

Reuters