Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe's largest consumer-electronics maker, posted a fourth straight quarterly profit on higher demand for flat-screen displays and semiconductors used in mobile phones.

　　First-quarter net income was 550 million euros (US$664 million), compared with a loss of 69 million euros a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales rose 2 percent to 6.63 billion euros from 6.5 billion euros.

　　Chief Executive Officer Gerard Kleisterlee, 57, has turned his attention to increasing sales of flat-screen TVs and DVD recorders after slashing costs and shedding more than a fifth of the Amsterdam-based company's workforce. Last year, he reported Philips's first annual profit since becoming CEO in 2001.

　　The announcement came before the start of trading at Euronext Amsterdam. Shares of Philips have gained 7.7 percent this year with the benchmark Amsterdam AEX Index 3.9 percent in the same period.

　　Philips, also Europe's third-largest semiconductor maker, had been expected to post first-quarter profit of 432 million euros on sales of 6.72 billion euros, according to the median forecast of 15 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.

　　Philips, founded in 1891 as a manufacturer of electric lamps, makes rechargeable electric shavers, DVD players, coffee machines and vacuum cleaners. It's also the world's biggest maker of light bulbs.

　　Sales of flat screens used in televisions and computer monitors, where Philips's LG.Philips LCD Co venture is the global market leader, are helping earnings recover after a slump in the electronics and semiconductor industries.

　　The slump forced Kleisterlee, who has been with Philips his entire career, to close plants, move production and shed more than a fifth of the workforce to lower expenses as Asian competition in electronics, lower chip sales and a drop in the dollar against the euro hurt revenue and profits.

　　Philips lost a combined 5.7 billion euros in 2001 and 2002, mainly from writedowns and lower chip sales. Cost cuts helped the company report a profit of 695 million euros last year.

　　Fourth-quarter sales at Philips rose 1.1 percent to 9.02 billion euros, which was the first gain in five quarters.

　　The LG.Philips LCD venture with Korea's LG Electronics Inc, the world's largest maker of liquid crystal displays, and competitors including Samsung Electronics Co have benefited as consumers switch to flat screens from bulkier, traditional glass-tube TVs and computer monitors.

　　Kleisterlee saved 1.1 billion euros by the end of 2003, beating the company's target.

　　(Bloomberg News)