Nearly two weeks after its initial public offering, fast-food chain operator McDonald's Co. (Japan) Ltd. announced Friday that it posted 12.61 billion yen in pretax profits for the first half of this year, down 9.6 percent from a year earlier.
Company officials attributed the decline to increased royalty fees to McDonald's Corp., a U.S. based hamburger shop operator, and trading house Fujita & Co., which provides management knowhow to McDonald's Japan. Fujita & Co. is owned by McDonald's Japan President Den Fujita.
During the January-June period, the firm's operating profits also fell 7.8 percent from the same period last year to 12.74 billion yen. Net profits dropped 15 percent to 7.6 billion yen.
Total sales from all 3,680 shops, including franchises, came to 220.84 billion yen, up 7.3 percent from a year earlier.
The company forecasts pretax profits of 26.96 billion yen, with net profits of 14.71 billion yen, and sales from all shops of 456.9 billion yen for the current business year to December.
McDonald's listed its stock on the Jasdaq over-the-counter market on July 26, about 30 years after opening its first hamburger shop in Tokyo's Ginza district.