Game software and equipment company Konami Co. said today it will aim for a 15% increase in consolidated net profit under its two-year business plan through March 2003. The company targets a net profit of Y25 billion on a pretax profit of Y50 billion and revenue of Y280 billion in the fiscal year to March 2003.
Konami reported record earnings for the past financial year ended March 31. It posted a group net profit of Y21.78 billion, a pretax profit of Y36.43 billion and revenue of Y171.48 billion. The company hopes to list on the New York Stock Exchange in 2002 to strengthen its fund-raising capabilities in the global market. Konami said it also plans to adopt a holding company system in the future.
Konami, which also makes the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, said it expects to sell 20 million consumer game titles this fiscal year, up from 16.5 million in the year ended March 31. Konami develops games for Sony's PlayStation 2 game console and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld player.
Game designers like Konami and rival Square Co. are counting on the popularity of video-game players with faster processing and snappier graphics to boost sales. Konami said it expects this year to sell 12 million software titles for the best-selling PlayStation 2 and 4.5 million titles for the Game Boy Advance, which reached Japanese stores in March.
''This is the year for us to release hit titles,'' Konami President Kagemasa Kozuki told analysts at a meeting today to provide background on the company's performance last year.
Still, the software designer said it won't sell any game software this fiscal year for Nintendo's GameCube video-game console, which is slated for a Japanese release sometime in September.
Led by higher software shipments, group sales at Konami's home-use video-game software division are expected to rise 35 percent to 80 billion yen ($653.9 million), Kozuki said.
For the year ended March 31, Konami, which also makes music simulation games such as Dance Dance Revolution, saw net income rise 19 percent on better-than-expected sales of its card game. Sales at the creative products division, the company's card game operations, are expected to slow this year, falling 21 percent to 48 billion yen.
The popularity of the trading card game, which was introduced in Japan almost three years ago, has helped Konami compensate for fewer sales of its music games. Preparing to offer shares in the U.S., Konami will begin selling Yu-Gi-Oh! in that market this year.
Sales at the gamemaker's health-care entertainment operations are expected to soar 15-fold to 71 billion yen following Konami's purchase of People Co., Japan's largest operator of fitness centers, which was completed in February. Konami bought a 54.6 percent stake in People for 69 billion yen.
The shares rose 30 yen, or 0.5 percent, to 6,180. Konami's shares have fallen 28 percent since Jan. 1 compared with a 7.3 percent gain by the Topix index of all companies listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
SOURCES:
Yahoo Asia
Bloomberg News
