Sumitomo Corp. on Feb. 8 increased its fiscal 2017 attributable profit guidance by a further 7.1% to ¥300 billion after posting a 126.7% year-over year jump in earnings for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2017, to ¥252.89 billion, or ¥202.57 per share.
The company attributed the profit guidance increase for the fiscal year ending March 31 to a recovery in the tubular products business in North America and higher profit from the mineral resources businesses thanks to higher commodity prices.
Sumitomo said the performance is expected to continue through this fiscal year and the updated forecast incorporated the one-off profit of about ¥17.0 billion in the third quarter due to the U.S. tax reform, as this was not included in the November 2017 forecast.
The company also raised its full-year dividend forecast to ¥60 per share from the ¥56 per share expected previously.
Revenues in the nine-month period improved 21.8% to ¥3.48 trillion mainly due to strong commodity prices and improved earnings from the North American tubular products business.
Gross profit came in at ¥710.4 billion, which rose by ¥99.5 billion on a yearly basis driven by higher earnings from the San Cristobal silver-zinc-lead mining project in Bolivia and coal mining projects in Australia, among other factors.
Sumitomo's metal products business booked an attributable profit of ¥18.5 billion in the first nine months, an increase of ¥10.5 billion from the prior year primarily due to stable performance of overseas steel service centers and one-off profit from asset replacement.
The company's mineral resources, energy, chemical and electronics business unit's attributable profit increased by ¥77.4 billion on a yearly basis to ¥43.2 billion.
The improvement was attributed to the impairment losses booked in the year-ago period and higher earnings from San Cristobal, an iron ore project in South Africa and coal mining projects in Australia.
As of Feb. 7, US$1 was equivalent to ?109.51.
