The Hague — On Monday, Dutch electronics giant Philips posted a sevenfold leap in first-quarter profits after spinning off its lighting business in 2016. Net profit soared to €259m in the first three months of 2017, compared with €37m in the same period last year. The year-earlier figure was down about 63%, due mainly to taxes linked to its efforts to divest the lighting business. The Amsterdam-based group said sales also rose to €5.7bn from January to March, up 3.6% over the first quarter of 2016. "We had a solid start to the year," CEO Frans van Houten said, pointing to growth in the company’s health business. "Despite continued volatility in the markets in which we operate, our HealthTech portfolio grew 3% and achieved further operational improvements," he added in a statement. Philips was best known for the manufacture of lightbulbs, electrical appliances and TVs. But it pulled out of these activities in face of fierce competition from Asia to focus on health technology such as ...
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