Japan's Advantest ups FY profit outlook by 53% on stronger chip tester demand

By Sam Nussey

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's Advantest raised its full-year operating profit forecast by 53% on Wednesday citing stronger than expected growth in demand for chip testing equipment.

Advantest expects profit of 138 billion yen ($903.02 million) in the year ending March 2024, pointing to the increasing complexity of chips related to generative artificial intelligence (AI) as boosting the use of testing tools.

The company reported operating profit more than doubled to 31.3 billion yen in the April-June quarter with Advantest hiking its full-year sales outlook for system on chip and memory testers.

Sales to China in the first quarter fell to 36 billion yen compared to 50.4 billion three months earlier, while sales to Taiwan and South Korea grew over the same period.

($1 = 152.8200 yen)

(Reporting by Sam NusseyEditing by Shri Navaratnam and David Evans)