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Thomson sales jump 14%
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April 12, 2001: 6:39 a.m. ET
France's Thomson Multimedia rises on strong sales and healthy forecasts
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LONDON (CNN) - French consumer electronics firm Thomson Multimedia unveiled better-than-expected first-quarter sales on Thursday, sending its shares soaring.
The company also confirmed strong revenue growth forecasts for the year. Thomson shares rose 6.1 percent to  40.95, after earlier rising as much as 9 percent, while the CAC-40 index was down 0.20 percent.
Thomson (PTMM) said first-quarter sales rose 14.1 percent to 2.2 billion ($1.95 billion) from 1.9 billion in the year-earlier period, an improvement on its forecast of steady turnover that it released in February.
The world's fourth-largest market of consumer electronics goods said its performance was in line with its target of full year double-digit growth and reflected solid worldwide sales in digital products.
It estimated operating profit would rise more than 40 percent in the first half.
Excluding revenue from Technicolor, the film and image processing business which it bought from British broadcaster Carlton Communications
For about $2.1 billion in cash and stock, sales increased by 7.4 percent.
A slowdown in growth for some products in the United States was offset by a significant increase in sales in Europe, Thomson said in a statement.
Rivals such Dutch electronics firm Philips, Japan's Matsushita and Motorola of the U.S. have all lowered their profit forecasts, but Thomson has benefited from its lack of involvement in the troubled semiconductor sector. 
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