Kanebo Ltd., which is rehabilitating under the state-backed Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, on Friday reported a group net profit of 358.11 billion yen for the first half of fiscal 2004.

The struggling textile maker, which has been undergoing reconstruction since March, said it posted a group operating profit of 1.51 billion yen and a pretax loss of 7.48 billion yen in the April-September period, on sales of 152.18 billion yen.

Per-share group net profit amounted to 700.11 yen.

Kanebo said that, as it has been re-examining past earnings records following recent revelations of financial window-dressing by its former management, the company cannot present year-on-year changes in earnings data.

The company included in its numbers 13.7 billion yen in sales posted by Kanebo Cosmetics Inc. until the firm was spun off from Kanebo in May.

Of the total midterm group sales, 33.9 billion yen came from food operations and 44.1 billion yen from textile operations.

The group net balance is positive because the company received 99.5 billion yen in debt waivers from creditors and earned 358.41 billion yen on the sale of its cosmetics business, Kanebo said.

For the full business year through March, the company expects its consolidated net profit to reach 315 billion yen and pretax loss to amount to 12 billion yen, on sales of 275 billion yen.

Kanebo is scheduled to accelerate its rehabilitation efforts under a revival plan approved by IRCJ that includes withdrawing from unprofitable operations and selling other businesses.