(Adds share price, analyst comment)
By Sarah Young
LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - Imagination Technologies, the British company whose graphics power Apple's iPhone, said it would make new cost cuts, including joblosses, to speed up a turnaround plan.
Tough trading conditions and a slow down in the rate ofiPhone shipment growth will result in Imagination posting anoperating loss for the year to the end of April, it has warned.
Imagination, which licenses graphics and video processingtechnology to semiconductor companies, has in recent yearsstruggled to ease its reliance on the iPhone and iPad maker.
The company said on Thursday it would reduce its cost baseby an extra 12.5 million pounds ($18 million) a year by 2017, ontop of the 15 million pounds cuts announced last month, byshedding 200 staff and shutting down or selling businesses.
Shares in the company, which also counts Apple as aninvestor, gained 5 percent to 179.4 pence at 0835 GMT, hittingtheir highest level for 3 months. The stock has lost almost athird of its value over the last twelve months.
Liberum analysts said the new cuts should feed straightthrough to Imagination's core earnings (EBIT), potentiallydoubling a consensus forecast for its 2017 full-year.
As part of the initial restructuring, Imagination hadflagged 150 job losses and said it would dispose of itsloss-making digital radio business Pure by the end of this year.
There was "considerable" interest in Pure, Imagination said.
For the current year, the company said revenues fromroyalties and licensing continued to be in line withexpectations, and that the new measures would help its financialrecovery. ($1 = 0.7017 pounds) (Editing by Kate Holton and Alexander Smith)