Glass manufacturer Asahi Glass Co. announced Monday that its group net profit for the fiscal first half to Sept. 30 was 15.22 billion yen, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, thanks mainly to the absence of large one-time losses logged the previous year.
The firm's group operating profit for the April-September period meanwhile fell 35.1 percent from a year earlier to 28.73 billion yen on revenue of 632.87 billion yen, down 2 percent.
Asahi Glass officials attributed the declines to the transfer of operation of the firm's South Korean subsidiary, Hankuk Electric Glass Co., to an affiliated company. Under accounting rules, only the profits of such an affiliate are logged in proportion to Asahi's stake.
In flat-glass operations, the robust housing market in the U.S. and redevelopment projects in the Tokyo area helped inflate demand, but the weak domestic housing industry and a price decline in Europe dragged down overall performance.
For the full year to March 31, Asahi Glass forecasts a group net profit of 31 billion yen on revenues of 1.3 trillion yen.