Japan“s Hoya Corp. said 20 July 2005 it expects a group net profit of JPY 38 billion for the fiscal 1H ending in September 2005, up 15.5% year-on-year, due to steady sales of digital electronics devi…
Japan“s Hoya Corp. said 20 July 2005 it expects a group net profit of JPY 38 billion for the fiscal 1H ending in September 2005, up 15.5% year-on-year, due to steady sales of digital electronics devices. Six-month consolidated operating profit is expected to grow 11.0% to JPY 49 billion on sales of JPY 163 billion, up 6.2%. Hoya“s 1H 2005 earnings will be led by robust sales of chipmaking photomasks and large photomasks used for LCD panel production, as inventory adjustments of digital electronics products continue, the optical devices maker said. Hoya said it will carry out a four-for-one stock split on 15 November 2005 for shareholders of record on 30 September 2005. The move is aimed at lowering the minimum necessary investment for the issue, whose trading unit is 100 shares, to less than JPY 500,000. Hoya refrained from offering dividend forecasts for the fiscal 1H 2005 or for the full year but said it intends to pay higher dividends than for 2004. For the April-June 2005 fiscal 1Q, Hoya reported that its group net profit was up 25.7% from a year earlier to JPY 20,389 million , a quarterly record. Operating profit for the quarter increased 18.9% to JPY 25,055 million , and sales rose 9.1% to JPY 81,777 million , also quarterly records. Sales in the electro-optics business were up 11.2 % to JPY 44.5 billion. The division benefited from solid demand for high-precision photomasks and mask blanks, both used in chip fabrication, as well as strong sales of photomasks for making LCD panels following the launch of new production lines and products by LCD makers. However, sales of lenses for digital cameras fell slightly due to digital electronics manufacturers“ continued efforts to adjust inventory. Hoya“s spectacle lens business posted sales of JPY 24.8 billion, up 8.7%.