Rakuten Inc., Japan's biggest Internet shopping mall operator, said Thursday that its group pretax profit surged 97.9 percent in the year to Dec. 31 from the previous year to a record 4.44 billion yen on an increase in tenants at its mall.
Rakuten said its group sales gained 82.8 percent to a record 18.08 billion yen.
But the company reported a group net loss of 52.64 billion yen due to extraordinary losses from the relocation of its head office, capital losses from the sale of some of its property assets and writeoffs related to the purchase of Mytrip Net Co., the operator of Japan's largest online hotel reservation site, last September.
The net loss was bigger than the previous year's 3.28 billion yen.
Rakuten said it will double its yearend dividend to 250 yen per share for the business year that has just ended from the previous year.
It did not provide earnings projections for the current fiscal year to Dec. 31, citing difficulties projecting changes in the Internet business.