Nippon Sheet Glass Co. said Wednesday its group net profit rose 2.3 percent to 7.76 billion yen in the 2005 business year as proceeds from sales of securities holdings outweighed the impact of higher crude oil and other raw materials costs.
In its earnings report for the year to March 31, Nippon Sheet Glass said its operating profit fell 29.9 percent to 8.43 billion yen and pretax profit fell 21.4 percent to 10.43 billion yen, despite a 0.3 percent rise in sales to 265.89 billion yen.
The maker of construction and automotive glass blamed the profit falls on higher crude oil and other raw material costs.
The company will pay a full-year dividend of 6 yen per share, including a 3 yen interim dividend already paid.
In offsetting the operating and pretax profit declines, it booked a 5.55 billion yen one-off gain from the sale of securities, it said.
The company recently made headlines with a 358.5 billion yen takeover of British glassmaker Pilkington PLC, for which it paid 165 pence, or 340 yen, per share.
For the current year ending next March, the company said it has booked only a 1.24 billion yen portion of the acquisition cost, with the remainder to be booked in the future. The takeover of the British firm will likely be completed by late June.