22 August 2006 — Tokyo (JPN): Wal-Mart’s Japanese subsidiary, Seiyu, has announced that its losses for the first six months of the year grew by five times to ¥54 billion yen ($465 million) compared to a loss of ¥10.6 billion the same period of the previous year.
First half sales fell 2.9 percent to ¥468 billion. But comparative store sales rose by 1.4 percent, the first year-on-year gain in 14 years, and the company expects to turn a net profit next year.