Major real estate firm Mitsui Fudosan Co. said Tuesday it logged its first consolidated net profit in five years in fiscal 2000, thanks to structural reforms in its management.

Group net profit for the year to March 31 came to 26.11 billion yen compared with a net loss of 58.42 billion yen the previous year, it said. Net profit per share rose to 32.14 yen from a loss of 71.89 yen.

Demand for office space by foreign companies and information technology-related firms grew in the reporting year, while housing businesses remained favorable, the company said.

Mitsui Fudosan also said group pretax profit rose 40.5 percent to 73.42 billion yen and operating profit was up 32.2 percent to 108.33 billion yen. But group sales edged down 0.1 percent to 1.19 trillion yen.

On an unconsolidated basis, the company posted a net profit of 16.51 billion yen against a net loss of 63.15 billion yen the previous year.

Pretax profit expanded 61.5 percent to 48.77 billion yen and operating profit rose 38 percent to 67 billion yen on a 4.3 percent drop in sales to 595.79 billion yen.

It plans to pay an annual dividend of 6 yen per share, up from 5 yen the previous year.

For the current fiscal year, it said it anticipates 1.2 trillion yen in group sales, 73 billion yen in pretax profit and 39 billion yen in net profit.