TOKYO: Japan Tobacco (JT) on Monday said its net profit jumped 17.9 percent in the six months to September as it steadily recovers from the impact of the country's devastating March earthquake and tsunami.
JT said its group net profit came to 95.9 billion yen ($1.2 billion) for the first half, up from 81.3 billion yen for the same period last year, mainly due to foreign exchange gains and reduced tax expenses.
The former tobacco monopoly said operating profit declined 3.8 percent from a year earlier to 193.0 billion yen on sales of 1.28 trillion yen, down 1.5 percent.
"Volume and market share are recovering steadily from the effects of the earthquake," said JT, which has a roughly two-thirds share of the domestic market and in which the government holds a 50 percent stake.
Tobacco sales at home, however, were down 41.2 percent from the same period last year when demand shot up ahead of a cigarette tax hike in October.
The company revised upward its sales forecast for the year ended March 2012, to 2.50 trillion yen from its earlier estimate of 2.45 trillion yen.
JT said it now sees an operating profit of 329 billion yen, compared with 336 billion yen projected earlier, while leaving its full-year net profit forecast unchanged at 161 billion yen.
For the last quarter of the fiscal year to March, JT suffered a 19.3 percent decline in net profit, booking a special loss of 10.9 billion yen with two of its six domestic tobacco plants damaged by the quake.
A shortage of filters and other supplies forced JT to halt shipments of all its 97 cigarette brands between March 30 and April 10.
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