The booming glass substrate business for TFT LCD and plasma display panels was partly responsible for the record half-year sales and profits posted on 18 August 2004 by Japan“s Asahi Glass Co. for th…
The booming glass substrate business for TFT LCD and plasma display panels was partly responsible for the record half-year sales and profits posted on 18 August 2004 by Japan“s Asahi Glass Co. for the 1H 2004 to 30 June. In its consolidated results for the 1H of 2004, Asahi Glass posted a net profit of JPY 59.46 billion on sales of JPY 715.11 billion. Precisely comparable figures from 2003 are unavailable as the company changed its fiscal period end date from 31 March to 31 December. Compared with the April-September period of the 9 month fiscal period in 2003, profit and sales in the 1H 2004 showed increases of 101.9% and 8.1% respectively. Asahi Glass also posted JPY 65.67 billion in operating profit and JPY 64.65 billion in pretax profit, new six-month highs in both categories and up 81.6% and 94.4 %, respectively. In addition to the expanded glass substrate business, the company attributed the strong results to cost reductions, price rises and an extraordinary profit of JPY 24.33 billion due to returning the portion of pension assets managed by its employee pension fund on behalf of the Japanese government. For the whole business year to 31 December 2004, Asahi Glass forecasts a net profit of JPY 73 billion and a pretax profit of JPY 122 billion on sales of JPY 1,450 billion. The company plans to pay a full-year dividend of JPY 12 per share, including an interim dividend of JPY 6.