TOKYO: Japan Tobacco Inc. raised its fiscal year-end dividend as it sees continued “mid to long term” growth, even as the company adjusted its operating profit target to reflect an exit from its beverage businesses earlier this year.
Operating income will probably be 554 billion yen ($4.6 billion) for the year through December based on continuing operations, which is unchanged from its previous forecast, Japan Tobacco said in a statement Wednesday. That compared with the company’s forecast of 668 billion yen in August that includes the discontinued operations.
“The ongoing solid business momentum gives us confidence to achieve mid- to long-term profit growth at constant FX, allowing us to revise the forecast for year-end dividend per share upwards,” Japan Tobacco’s President Mitsuomi Koizumi said in a statement. The Tokyo-based company increased its planned dividend per share for the current fiscal year by 10 yen to 118 yen.
The Tokyo-based company is transitioning to a new accounting period matching the calendar. Full-year sales will probably be 2.25 trillion yen, compared with its previous forecast of 2.26 trillion yen, while net income will probably be 474 billion yen compared with its previous target of 471 billion yen, according to Japan Tobacco.
Japan Tobacco had raised its annual profit target by 22 percent to 471 billion yen in August, after withdrawing from its beverage and vending machine businesses to focus on cigarettes. The former Japanese monopoly, which is paying $5 billion for rights to sell Natural American Spirit cigarettes outside the U.S., has bought brands and products abroad in the face of a shrinking population and a stagnating smoking rate at home.
