PARIS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - STMicroelectronics (PA:STM), Europe's largest semiconductor company, posted higher-than-expected quarterly net profit but cautioned that margins would be flat and revenue would decline in the final quarter of the year, blaming a softening market.
"In the fourth quarter, due to the ongoing soft market conditions, we expect net revenues to decrease sequentially by about 3.5 percent," STMicro Chief Executive Carlo Bozotti said in a statement on Wednesday.
He added that all but one of STMicro's major product groups would suffer sales declines in the final quarter.
Net revenue dropped to $1.89 billion (1.48 bln euros) from $2.01 billion in the year-ago quarter, reflecting on-going restructuring moves. The latest quarter's revenue was below the $1.93 billion average of analyst estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Analysts had substantially lowered their estimates for third-quarter results ahead of the STMicroelectronics report.
(1 euro = 1.2740 US dollar)
(Reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic in Paris and Eric Auchard in Frankfurt; Editing by James Regan)