Optical glass and eyeglass maker Hoya Corp. said Monday its group pretax profit for the 2002 business year, which ended March 31, rose 11.1 percent from the previous year to a record 50.87 billion yen.
The company attributed the gains in large part to robust demand for high-value-added products in the electro-optics sector. Group sales gained 4.7 percent to a record 246.29 billion yen as orders were also strong in the vision- and health-care sectors, the company said.
Glass, contact and intraocular lenses saw particularly strong sales, it said. Group net profit, however, fell 15.6 percent to 20.04 billion yen due to extraordinary losses on the dissolution of its employees' pension fund and additional payments of retirement benefits resulting from business reforms.
Group net profit per share was 171.10 yen for 2002, down from 204.44 yen the previous year. Hoya will pay a full-year dividend of 50 yen per share, including an interim dividend of 25 yen already paid. In the previous year, it paid the same cumulative dividend.