Hitachi's first-half net profit slips 5 pct to 49 mln dlrs

TOKYO (AFP) Oct 29, 2003
Japanese high-tech giant Hitachi said Wednesday its net profit for the six months to September shrank five percent from a year earlier to 5.38 billion yen (49.1 million dollars).

Pre-tax profit for the April-September period almost tripled to 90.50 billion yen and sales increased by three percent to 4.04 trillion yen, the company said in a statement.

For the full-year to March 2004, Hitachi doubled its previous net profit forecast to 10 billion yen from 5.0 billion yen, with pre-tax profit seen at 225 billion yen, up from an earlier forecast of 110 billion yen. Sales are now projected at 8.35 trillion yen, compared with 8.0 trillion yen earlier.

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