Philips loss widens in Q4; sheds division

Overall, the company's fourth quarter net loss widened to €358 million from €162 million from the same period in 2011, with both years affected by big charges: in 2011 Philips wrote down the value of its lighting inventory and booked big losses on the now-disposed television arm. Despite its fourth quarter loss, the company made a net profit over 2012 of €226 million, a marked improvement on 2011's €1.3 billion.

In the 2012 period, sales grew 6.7 percent to €7.16 billion, but Philips said that would have been only 3 percent if recent acquisitions and currency effects were stripped out.

Since taking the top job at Philips in 2011, Van Houten has vowed to cut 6,700 jobs, or 5 percent of the company's workforce, by 2014, as part of a cost reduction drive.

He said "challenging" conditions in Europe and the U.S. in 2012 hit orders and as a result he expects 2013 sales to start slowly before picking up in the second half of the year.

Shares were down 0.2 percent in early trading to € 21.90.