Kanebo Ltd. said Thursday it plunged into the red in the six months to Sept. 30 due to poor performance in most of its business lines, including the core cosmetics sector.

In its consolidated earnings report, Kanebo, which engages in cosmetics, textiles and pharmaceuticals, posted a net loss of 67.08 billion yen in the fiscal first half. This was a sharp reversal from the 135 million yen profit it earned a year earlier.

The company logged a pretax loss of 14.40 billion yen, with revenues falling 13.9 percent to 224.72 billion yen.

Kanebo said revenues from its mainline cosmetics business slumped as product prices continued to drop due to deflation while competition intensified.

The company marked a per-share loss of 131.02 yen, compared with a per-share profit of 0.27 yen a year earlier. As in the previous year, the company will pay no dividends for the half year.

For the full year to March 31, Kanebo forecasts a net profit of 1 billion yen and a pretax loss of 13 billion yen on revenues of 465 billion yen.

In the previous year, the company logged a net profit of 518 million yen and a pretax profit of 14.13 billion yen on revenues of 518.24 billion yen.

The company aims to clear the negative net worth by selling idle assets. For the full year to March 31, Kanebo forecasts net profit of 1 billion yen and a pretax loss of 13 billion yen.