Uniqlo operator profit soars on brisk sales, cheap yen

[Tokyo] Uniqlo's parent company said Thursday that its nine-month net profit soared nearly 70 per cent from a year earlier on robust sales and as a cheaper yen inflated the value of its overseas assets.

Fast Retailing's net profit came in at 120 billion yen (S$1.46 billion) in the nine months through May, while revenue rose three per cent to 1.48 trillion yen, it said.

Asia's biggest retailer - a rival of Zara, Gap and H&M - said sales were particularly robust overseas.

Operating profit for the quarter doubled in the South-east Asian/Oceania region as well as in South Korea, it said.

Nine-month operating profit rose 23.9 per cent to 181 billion yen.

It has refocused its strategy on luring bargain-hunters after an earlier bid to raise prices hurt Uniqlo's sales.

On Thursday, the group also said the yen's value had declined from the period a year earlier. That boosted the value of assets valued in foreign currencies, resulting in gains of some 13.3 billion yen.

However, the company left its full-year estimates unchanged, expecting a doubling of net profit to 100 billion yen, with operating profit set to rise by more than a third to 175 billion yen on revenue of 1.85 trillion yen, up 3.6 per cent.

AFP