Japan Tobacco Inc. said Monday it has lowered its projection of 52 billion yen in group net profit to 30 billion yen for fiscal 2001 due to an extraordinary loss of 41.5 billion yen in restructuring costs.

The former tobacco monopoly, privatized in 1985, said it has revised its consolidated sales and pretax profit upward thanks to an expansion in overseas tobacco business. Domestic business has also improved, benefiting from restructuring moves.

Consolidated sales are estimated to hit about 4.54 trillion yen, up from the 4.46 trillion yen projected in November. Pretax profit is likely to come to 139 billion yen, up from 129 billion yen.

But consolidated net profit must be cut because of extraordinary losses stemming from a series of restructuring programs, including the reduction of its German sales division, the closing a factory in Puerto Rico, and the early retirement of white-collar staff at home, it said.

JT urged office workers in their 40s and 50s to retire early and offered additional allowances to those who did. Of the 9,200 workers eligible for the offer, 913 applied by Jan. 11 deadline and are expected to leave the firm at the end of March.

The program will cost JT about 29 billion yen in a one-time extraordinary loss but will also allow the firm to save about 10 billion yen a year, JT said.

On an unconsolidated basis, JT raised its projection for sales and pretax profit but also lowered net profit.

Unconsolidated net profit is projected to reach 45 billion yen, down from the earlier predicted 58 billion yen, while pretax profit will come to around 108 billion yen, up from 101 billion yen, and sales to 2.74 trillion yen, up from 2.73 trillion yen.