RPT-UPDATE 2-NEC profit climbs on cost cuts, sees growth

(Repeats May 15 story to fix technical glitch) (Adds comments, details, share price)

By Mayumi Negishi

TOKYO, May 15 (Reuters) - NEC Corp (6701.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Japan's biggest maker of telecoms network equipment, doubled its quarterly profit, helped by cost cuts and a healthy IT services business, but its outlook for the current year missed expectations.

NEC, which also makes supercomputers and mobile phones, has swallowed massive restructuring costs this year in a bid to revive growth, but its outlook on Thursday was dragged down by a stronger yen and pension related costs.

NEC said it expects a net profit of 35 billion yen ($333 million) in the year that began in April, up 54 percent from the previous year, due to further cost cuts and investment by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (9432.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in high-speed networks.

That outlook missed a consensus forecast for a net profit of 56.6 billion yen by eight analysts polled by Reuters.

Pension-related costs are projected to drag down profit by 12 billion yen and a strong yen would likely add 15 billion yen to that bill, while research and development costs would grow by 23 billion yen, it said.

NEC, which supplies its handsets solely to NTT DoCoMo Inc (9437.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), has been stepping up efforts to ship handsets to fast-growing upstart carrier Softbank Corp (9984.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), NEC executives have said.

Those first shipments will arrive this year, Senior Vice President Takao Ono indicated on Thursday, raising its handset shipments 45 percent to 7 million units.