Nippon Oil Posts 26.6% Group Net Profit Gain in FY 2005

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Apr. 26–TOKYO — Nippon Oil Corp. said Wednesday its group net profit shot up 26.6 percent in fiscal 2005 to 166.51 billion yen amid surges in the prices of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

In an earnings report for the 12-month period to March 31, the nation’s largest oil distributor said its pretax profit jumped 45.5 percent to 309.09 billion yen on a 24.2 percent surge in sales to 6.12 trillion yen.

Net profit per share also zoomed up to 114.08 yen from the previous business year’s 86.72 yen.

Nippon Oil will raise its full-year dividend to 12 yen per share, including the midterm dividend of 6 yen already paid. The full-year sum compares with the previous year’s 10 yen.

For the current business year to next March 31, Nippon Oil expects to post a net profit of 70 billion yen and a pretax profit of 137 billion yen on projected sales of 6.13 trillion yen.

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