Nintendo raises full-year profits, doubles dividends

Japanese platform holder Nintendo has released preliminary figures for the full year through to March 31st, revealing profits some 17 per cent higher than previously projected, thanks in part to favourable currency movements.

The firm now expects to report full-year net profits of 82 billion Yen (587 million Euro), compared with its own last estimate, delivered in late December, of 70 billion Yen (501 million Euro).

While strong sales of the Nintendo DS have certainly helped the company's figures, much of this improvement can be attributed to the weaker than expected state of the Yen, which has boosted the perceived worth of Nintendo's overseas assets.

The company also plans to use the windfall to boost its share dividend to 270 Yen (1.93 Euro), in a move which should placate shareholders - who have been increasingly dissatisfied at the low dividends from Japanese companies in general.

Although Nintendo can't claim responsibility for the currency fluctuation which has given it this boost, the company will still be celebrating a hugely successful fourth quarter, which has seen it completely reverse its performance a year ago - when it was forced to announce its first quarterly loss in over a century of trading.

Also largely caused by currency fluctuations, the 1.4 billion Yen (10 million Euro) loss was seized upon by the press as evidence that Nintendo's fortunes were fading fast - but in this most recent quarter, Nintendo has turned around the bitter memory of last year with a 14 billion Yen (100 million Euro) net income figure.