Nintendo’s Raises Profit Outlook

TOKYO - Nintendo Co. on Tuesday raised its group net profit outlook for the fiscal year that ended in March by almost 27 percent to 95 billion yen ($805 million) due to brisk sales of its portable game player Nintendo DS and foreign-exchange gains on a weaker yen.

The Kyoto-based company, famous worldwide as the maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games, kept its group sales outlook unchanged at 500 billion yen ($4.24 billion).

But its parent company’s sales were revised up by 20 billion yen ($170 million) to 410 billion yen ($3.5 billion) for last fiscal year, thanks to demand for its DS game machine.

The company said that a sharp rise in foreign-exchange gains caused by a weaker yen prompted it to raise its net profit forecast from the previous estimate of 75 billion yen ($636 million).

A weak yen helps boost Nintendo’s dollar- and euro-denominated deposits, resulting in a foreign-exchange gain, estimated at 45 billion yen ($380 million) for the just-ended fiscal year, the company said.

Nintendo keeps a lot of its foreign earnings in overseas markets, where it can earn higher interest than in Japan. Japan’s interest rates are at nearly zero.

The upbeat performance prompted the company to boost its dividend payment to a record-high 370 yen ($3.10) per share for the just-ended business year, up from 270 yen ($2.30) a year earlier.

In trading Tuesday on the Osaka Securities Exchange, shares of Nintendo rose 330 points, or 1.9 percent, to 17,776 yen ($151).