How's Hoya / Pentax doing?

 Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Pentaxian friends.

I think they are doing okay, given the current world economic situation.

During the quarter, due to the economic recovery, HOYA group’s production and shipments were higher compared with those for the same quarter last year although sales were significantly affected by lower product prices and the appreciation of the yen.

“At constant currency, the medical endoscope business achieved a double-digit growth in Europe, the United States, and many emerging countries this quarter. This is a result of the globalization and business restructuring we have worked on since Hoya and Pentax merged,” said Hiroshi Hamada, chief operating officer of HOYA. “The profit of the camera business also exceeded our expectations this quarter due to the channel consolidation and focused promotion of new SLR cameras; K-5 and K-r.”

For the first nine months ended December 31, 2010, net sales were up 4.0% to 321,117 million yen year-on-year. Operating income was up 25.1% to 58,805 million yen, and net income was up 81.3% to 47,126 million yen.

For the year ending March 31, 2011, Hoya forecasts net sales of 423,000 million yen (up 2.3% year-on-year), operating income of 75,000 million yen (up 16.6%) and net income of 57,000 million yen (up 50.5%.)

The full quarterly report is available in “Financial Statement” page in HOYA website Investor Relations section at: http://www.hoya.co.jp/english/

*Results are preliminary and unaudited.

*The yen amounts shown therein are rounded down to the nearest million.

About Hoya Corporation

Founded in 1941 as Japan’s first specialty manufacturer of optical glass, Hoya is a global broad-based IT/health care company based upon its advanced optics technologies. Hoya is active in two main fields of business: The Information Technology provides mask blanks for the semiconductor devices and LCD panels, glass disks for HDDs, and optical lenses. The Life Care provides eyeglasses and intraocular lenses for cataract surgery. Merged with Pentax in 2008, Hoya also manufactures SLR/compact digital cameras and endoscopic system under Pentax brand. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Hoya now has over 100 subsidiaries and affiliates, and employs approximately 37,500 people worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.hoya.co.jp/