Imperial Hotel, Ltd. (9708) grew sales 10.2% to ¥28.01bn in the six months to 30 September 2026, but operating profit fell 59.5% to ¥129mn and profit attributable to owners fell 59.3% to ¥215mn. Ordinary profit was ¥337mn, down 39.4%.
What dragged on profit
The company's earnings release attributes the squeeze to rising prices, start-up costs for Imperial Hotel Kyoto and investment tied to reopening the Tower building. It describes Kyoto as the group's first new hotel in 30 years. The releases give no opening date; the interim period was the hotel's first year of operation.
The real estate leasing segment shows the Tower effect most clearly: sales rose 172.2% to ¥541mn, yet the segment booked an operating loss of ¥393mn, which the company ties to equipment repair costs at the Tower building's reopening. The hotel segment earned ¥1.78bn, up 16.9%, on sales of ¥27.48bn.
The presentation puts first-year sales at the hotel with no prior-year comparison at ¥1.04bn, driven by high-priced rooms sold to members and wealthy domestic guests.
EBITDA tells a different story
The company's own EBITDA, defined as ordinary profit plus interest paid plus depreciation, rose 23.9% to ¥1.86bn. Interest paid in the cash flow statement was ¥92mn with none a year earlier, and depreciation was ¥1.43bn against ¥944mn.
Ahead of forecast, guidance unchanged
In a separate notice, the company said results beat the forecast it published on 14 May: operating profit of ¥129mn against an expected zero, ordinary profit of ¥337mn against ¥100mn, and net profit of ¥215mn against ¥50mn. Sales of ¥28.01bn were 1.7% below the ¥28.5bn forecast. The company said the Tower reopening lifted margins above assumptions, and that productivity gains and tighter cost control also helped.
It left full-year guidance untouched: sales of ¥61.4bn, operating profit of ¥2.4bn, ordinary profit of ¥2.7bn and net profit of ¥1.85bn, which is 56.9% below the previous year. The company said it would disclose any change as appropriate.