Sega Profits Double

Officials from Sega have announced the company’s results for the nine month period ended December 31. During this period the company saw net profits increase by 92% from ¥3.98 billion ($37.72m) in 2002 to ¥7.66 billion ($72.60m) in 2003. Group operating profit increased 33% to ¥12.50 billion ($118.5m), despite a 4.1% decline in group sales to ¥144.51 billion ($1.37bn). The strong performance has been attributed to the company’s arcade business which performed better than expected in the period. Although it performed largely as expected consumer software sales remained in the red with an operating loss of ¥2.3 billion ($21.8m), compared to a loss of ¥5.8 billion (55.0m) in 2002. For the year ending March 31 the company has maintained its forecast of a group operating profit of ¥14 billion ($133m) and a net profit of ¥8 billion ($76m). It has lowered group sales estimates to ¥190 billion ($1.8bn) from ¥195.7 billion because of various title delays. Finally, the company has announced an extraordinary shareholder’s meeting for 17th February to approve the appointment of two new Sammy directors and to discuss further integration of both company’s businesses. Source: Dow Jones Business News