Takara's net profit takes a dive

Takara Co.'s group net profit for the fiscal first half of 2003 fell 28.6 percent from a record high a year earlier to 1.58 billion yen.

The nation's third-largest toy maker said Wednesday that valuation losses on asset holdings outweighed gains from record sales in the six-month period.

Takara's sales grew 23 percent to 45.95 billion yen.

Group pretax profit slid 38.5 percent to 1.7 billion yen and group operating profit dropped 27.6 percent to 2.51 billion yen. Takara said sales in its core toy business increased 13.8 percent to 37.05 billion yen due to strong sales of the Duel Masters card game on the domestic market and the smash hit scored by the BeyBlade, a revamp of the spinning top, in overseas markets.