NEC Corp, Japan's largest personal-computer maker, said net income will rise 54 percent as its chip business turns profitable and it ships more mobile phones.

Net income will climb to 35 billion yen (US$334 million) in the 12 months to March 31, 2009, from 22.7 billion yen a year earlier, NEC said yesterday. The outlook is less than the 55 billion yen median estimate of seven analysts compiled by Bloomberg News.

NEC forecast the highest net income in four years after its mobile-phone division turned profitable in the 12 months just ended and as chip operations are predicted to break even in the current fiscal year. The firm scaled back overseas sales of unprofitable handsets and cut research spending to help the two units back to profit.

Handset shipments will jump 46 percent to 7 million units this year, as the company supplies more to NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's largest mobile-phone operator, NEC Senior Vice President Takao Ono said at a briefing in Tokyo. The company will add another carrier as a client this year, Ono said, without specifying details.

Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, will rise 8.4 percent to 170 billion yen this year as revenue gains 4 percent to 4.8 trillion yen, the Tokyo-based firm said. Analysts see 151 billion yen in operating income on 4.7 trillion yen in sales.

NEC Electronics Corp on Wednesday forecast it will break even after three consecutive years of losses.