NYK OPTIMISTIC AFTER HALF-YEAR PROFITS

NYK OPTIMISTIC AFTER HALF-YEAR PROFITS    NYK, Japan’s largest shipping group, said that it expects an increase in profit for its financial year due to end on March 31, 2001, after having posted a net income of 14 billion Yen ($134 million) for the six-month period from April to September.
   Operating income for the half-year period was Yen45 billion ($418 million). Ordinary income amounted to Yen31 billion ($287 million) and consolidated revenues totaled Yen563 billion ($5.2 billion) in the latest six-month period.
   NYK did not provide comparative figures for the corresponding period of 1999.
   NYK predicted that its full-year net income for the current financial year will rise to Yen28 billion ($259 million), about 75 percent more than the Yen16 billion result for the April 1999-March 2000 financial year. Ordinary income is forecast to jump to Yen60 billion ($556 million), from Yen39 billion in the previous year. Consolidated revenues are expected to reach Yen1.14 trillion ($10.6 billion), as compared to Yen1.10 trillion in the previous financial year.
   NYK announced an interim dividend of    3 Yen per share.
   The Yen14 billion ($134 million) half-year net income reported by NYK is much higher than the results announced recently by fellow Japanese shipping groups Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and “K” Line. MOL posted a Yen7.6 billion ($70 million) net profit and “K” Line’s net result was Yen1.2 billion ($11 million).
   With 57 owned vessels and 481 chartered vessels of all types, NYK is one of the world’s largest shipping groups.