Cash-strapped Japan reported on Friday its tenth consecutive quarterly loss, hit by weak iPhone sales at its biggest client Apple Inc .
The liquid crystal display (LCD) maker for smartphones, which gets more than half of its revenue from Apple, posted a net loss of 83.27 billion yen ($786.53 million) in the April-June quarter, far wider than the 1.77 billion loss a year earlier.
Japan Display, money-losing for the past five years, declined to give a full-year earnings outlook, but has previously warned it cannot guarantee a return to profit this year as demand for smartphone screens stays weak.
Apple said last week sales of the smartphone fell 12% globally to $25.99 billion in the quarter to June, after a 17% drop in the prior quarter. ($1 = 105.8700 yen).
The Japanese company plans to hold a shareholders’ meeting on September 27 to formalise the bailout plan.
The investment, to be completed by August next year at the latest, will give the Chinese group a 49.8 percent stake in Japan Display, replacing Japanese government-backed fund INCJ as the biggest shareholder.
But it remains unclear whether Japan Display can close the deal by the deadline, as the investment is dependent on certain conditions, such as no intervention by Chinese authorities and no major cuts in orders from Apple.