Cosmetics maker Shiseido Co. said Tuesday its consolidated pretax profits for the first half through Sept. 30 plunged 42.9 percent from the same period a year ago to 9.90 billion yen.
The company attributed the reduced earnings to sluggish domestic sales and increased strategic investments aimed at upgrading its operational infrastructure, such as point-of-sale facilities.
Its consolidated sales fell 0.1 percent to 292.38 billion yen.
Shiseido posted group net losses of 1.48 billion yen for the first-half period, compared with losses of 54.30 billion yen a year earlier. This scenario was attributed to extraordinary losses incurred by product callbacks and writeoffs in the wake of a change in the pharmacy law.
The company will pay an interim dividend of 8 yen per share for the half-year period, a level unchanged from a year ago.
For the full year ending March 31, Shiseido is projecting group net losses of 13 billion yen and group pretax profits of 23 billion yen on sales of 600 billion yen.