House builder S x L trims net loss in 1st half.

TOKYO, Nov. 19 Kyodo

House builder S x L Corp. said Tuesday its group net loss narrowed to 1.02 billion yen in the fiscal first half to Sept. 30 from 29.58 billion yen a year earlier due to smaller appraisal losses on securities holdings.

The company said the net loss mainly reflects the stagnating housing market and an extraordinary loss of some 1 billion yen, including 604 million yen in appraisal losses on securities holdings as a result of the stock market plunge.

The appraisal losses were smaller than the 13.27 billion yen losses of the same kind a year earlier.

In its consolidated earnings report, S x L posted a pretax loss  of 196 million yen, compared with a loss of 587 million yen a year earlier, with revenues of 51.13 billion yen, down 9.2%.

As in the previous year, the company will skip dividend payments for the interim period. But it said it will pay a year-end dividend of 5 yen per share, revised down from 7.5 yen announced in May.

For the full year through next March 31, S x L forecasts a group net profit of 570 million yen and a group pretax profit of 1.8 billion yen on group revenues of 108 billion yen.

In the previous year, the company logged a group net loss of 35.72 billion yen and a group pretax loss of 615 million yen on group revenues of 109.50 billion yen.