Japan's NEC group net profit surges to 15.4 billion yen

TOKYO (AFP) Oct 23, 2003
Major Japanese high-tech company NEC Corp. said Thursday its group net profit surged to 15.4 billion yen (141 million dollars) in the six months to September from 1.0 billion yen a year earlier thanks to "considerable" gains from the stock market flotation of two group firms.

NEC's pre-tax profit nearly quadrupled to 77.7 billion yen, compared with 20.3 billion yen a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

The group's half-year sales gained 5.0 percent from a year earlier to 2.28 trillion yen.

For the full year to March 2004, the major semiconductor maker forecast a net profit of 40 billion yen and pre-tax profit of 160 billion yen on sales worth 4.85 trillion yen, the statement said.

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