Shiseido’s First-Half Net Profit More Than DoublesStrong sales and increased marketing investment helped to boost the company's bottom line.

[Collection]TOKYO—Shiseido said Wednesday that net income for the first half of the year more than doubled compared with the same period in 2017, thanks to stronger sales and the effects of increased marketing investment. For the six months ended June 30, Japan’s largest cosmetics company posted net income of 47.67 billion yen, or $428.3 million at current exchange rates. This represents more than a doubling of profits compared with the same period last year, when net profit was 18.81 billion yen. First-half operating income also more than doubled, totaling 71.11 billion yen this year, over last year’s 34.67 billion yen. “As marketing investment was proactively increased, [we achieved] strong sales of the highly profitable prestige brands and other products in the Japan, China, travel retail, and other businesses,” Shiseido said. Net sales for the period grew by 12.8 percent to 532.6 billion yen. Last year the company’s sales in the first half came to 472.11 billion yen. Shiseido saw sales growth in the majority of geographic regions in which it operates. While sales in the Americas slipped 0.6 percent to 58.84 billion yen, in local currency terms sales increased by 1.8 percent. In Japan, sales were up 14 percent to 238.53 billion yen. In

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