Sumitomo posts 5.4% rise in net profit, to achieve 2-yr plan.

Japan Weekly Monitor, November, 2002

TOKYO, Oct. 31 Kyodo

Trading house Sumitomo Corp. said Thursday it posted a 5.4% rise to 21.41 billion yen in its group net profit for the fiscal first half through Sept. 30 from a year before despite a 5.5% fall in sales to 4,568.54 billion yen.

The company attributed the gain in net profit to improved interest and fixed asset balances as well as a 3.6 billion yen jump in investment profit calculated by the equity method. The equity method allows a parent firm to reflect earnings at affiliated firms in its consolidated accounting procedure.

Sumitomo made no change in its projections for the group's earning results in its full fiscal year, ending next March 31, with a net profit of 55 billion yen on sales of 9,500 billion yen.

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