Pioneer to post loss, develop panels with Matsushita

TOKYO (Reuters) - Consumer electronics maker Pioneer Corp (6773.T: Quote, Profile, Research) will likely fall into the red for the fourth straight year on costs to scrap production of plasma panels used to make flat TVs, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

Pioneer will also develop plasma displays with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research) in addition to already reported plans to procure panels from Matsushita following its withdrawal from production, the newspaper said.

Shares of Pioneer, which issued a statement saying it would brief on its restructuring plans at 0700 GMT (2:00 a.m. EST), fell 3.2 percent to 1,172 yen, slightly underperforming a 2.8 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average.

Pioneer's stock had surged 16 percent since Monday's close after Reuters and other media reported that the company had decided to cease making plasma panels on its own to stem losses in its flat-TV business.

Pioneer is likely to log a group net loss of roughly 8 billion yen ($77.72 million) for the year ending March -- its fourth straight loss -- due to 20 billion yen in asset write-downs to close plasma production lines, the Nikkei said.

It had previously forecast a net profit of 6 billion yen.

The newspaper also said Pioneer and Matsushita were planning to jointly develop low-cost and high-quality panels for shipment as early as 2009, and that Pioneer engineers could be transferred to Matsushita.

Pioneer's operating profit would be about 10 billion yen, it said, as sales of its car electronics outweigh losses in its home electronics segment, the Nikkei said.

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi and Nathan Layne; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)