Hoya posts record half-year results

Pre-tax profit amounted to ¥32.8 billion ($AU380 m), with ¥26.7 billion (AU$310 m) in actual profit, representing increases of 3.9% and 7.9%, respectively.Meanwhile, for the six months ending Septber 30, Hoya posted record revenues of ¥262.9 billion (AU$3.03 b) and record profit for the term of ¥51.9 billion (AU$600 m), representing increases of 4.3% and 21.4%, respectively.The company’s Life Care segment, which includes eyeglass lenses, contact lenses and intraocular lenses, drove the highest volume growth thanks mainly to increased overseas eyeglass lens sales and business acquisitions.{{quote-A:R-W:450-Q: The company’s Life Care segment, which includes eyeglass lenses, contact lenses and intraocular lenses, drove the highest volume growth. }}Medical endoscopes also experienced improved sales, pushed mainly by performance in Europe and Asia, while new products drove sales of intraocular lenses as well.“The Life Care segment delivered a sales increase of 9.4% without exchange gain this quarter and we expect the segment profitability to improve in the second half as post-merger integration completes,” president and CEO Mr Hiroshi Suzuki said.The Information Technology segment also reported higher revenues year on year, driven by stronger dands in siconductor devices and glass substrates for hard disk drives. Imaging-related product sales increased as well due to an expansion of new applications.Hoya announced interim dividends of ¥30 ($AU0.35) per share of common stock in response to the positive results.Elsewhere, Valeant Pharmaceuticals reported better-than-expected quarterly profit on the back of strength in its Bausch and Lomb eyecare business. As a result the company was able to reduce total debt by about US$6 billion (AU$7.8 b) between the end of the first quarter of 2016 and Novber 7.It was a positive step for the Canadian drug maker, which has long-term debt totalling US$27.1 billion (AU$35.3 b) and had seen its shares fall 17% this year.