Teikoku Oil Posts 46.4% Gain in Interim Net Profit

Aug. 17–TOKYO — Teikoku Oil Co. said Wednesday it chalked up a group net profit of 8.93 billion yen in the January-June first half of the current business year, up 46.4 percent over a year earlier, thanks to an increase in sales of natural gas, the company’s principal revenue source.

Teikoku Oil posted a 21.7 percent gain in group sales to 49.79 billion yen as a result of stepped-up marketing of natural gas.

Rises in petroleum product prices caused by higher crude oil prices also contributed to the sales growth.

Pretax profit rose 49.1 percent to 14.09 billion yen.

Encouraged by the strong results, Teikoku Oil said it will pay an interim dividend of 4.5 yen per share, up 1.5 yen from a year earlier.

For the entire business year to Dec. 31, Teikoku Oil expects a net profit of 13.8 billion yen and a pretax profit of 21.8 billion yen on sales of 95.7 billion yen, compared with the previous year’s corresponding figures of 9.28 billion yen, 16.52 billion yen and 84.03 billion yen.

The company plans to pay a full-year dividend of 9 yen per share, including the interim dividend, up from 7.5 yen for the preceding year.

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