Yahoo Japan Sees April-Sept. Operating Profit Growth

Tokyo, July 24 (Jiji Press)–Yahoo Japan Corp. said Tuesday it expects to post a group operating profit of between 57,920 million yen and 59,670 million yen for the April-September first half of fiscal 2007, against 49,000 million yen a year before.

Consolidated sales are projected at between 113,187 million yen and 115,587 million yen, compared with 100,469 million yen, and recurring profit is forecast at between 55,827 million yen and 57,577 million yen, against 47,707 million yen, the company said.

Net profit is expected to total between 31,854 million yen and 32,754 million yen, compared with 26,806 million yen, it said.

Even though the company’s mainstay advertising operations remain sluggish, revenue from the operations is expected to increase in July-September from April-June, company officials said.

For the July-September fiscal second quarter, the company forecasts sales of between 56,500 million yen and 58,900 million yen, an operating profit of between 28,250 million yen and 30,000 million yen, and a net profit of between 15,650 million yen and 16,550 million yen.

For April-June first quarter, Yahoo Japan posted sales of 56,687 million yen, up 15.1 pct from a year before, an operating profit of 29,670 million yen, up 23.7 pct, and a net profit of 16,204 million yen, up 22.7 pct.

Despite the year-on-year sales increase, group sales in April- June declined quarter-on-quarter for the first time in 15 quarters.

Revenue from advertising operations posted a year-on-year increase, but incurred the first quarter-on-quarter fall in three quarters.

In Yahoo Japan’s personal service operations, revenue related to the Yahoo! BB broadband Internet service declined by about 800 million yen from a year earlier after the company reviewed its contract with business partner Softbank BB Corp.

Revenue from its business service operations grew thanks to a rise in the number of stores offering the services.[EARNINGS]END

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