Skylark Co. said Wednesday it posted a group net loss of 1.16 billion yen in the business year to Dec. 31. The chain of family restaurants attributed the deterioration, which marks a reversal from a profit of 5.85 billion yen in the previous year, to an extraordinary loss of 31.73 billion yen, mainly due to investment losses on its group firms.
Regarding its core business, Skylark marked a 1.6 percent profit increase to 24.78 billion yen at the pretax level as cuts in expenses, especially personnel costs, helped operating profit grow 5.9 percent to 26.25 billion yen. Group sales were also up, 4.1 percent to 381.74 billion yen, though the overall restaurant market began to swoon in June.
The company will pay a full-year dividend of 20 yen per share, including an interim dividend of 10 yen paid already.