Sapporo Breweries Limited, renamed from Sapporo Holdings Limited on July 1, 2026 following approval at its March shareholders meeting, reported a first-half net profit of ¥295.4bn, up ¥293.7bn from ¥1.8bn a year earlier. The surge has almost nothing to do with beer. It comes from one transaction: on June 1, 2026, Sapporo completed the first stage of a deal that stripped it of accounting control over its real-estate subsidiary, Sapporo Real Estate Development. Losing control of a subsidiary under international accounting rules produces a one-off gain on paper, and that gain accounts for nearly all of the year's profit swing.
| Metric | H1 2026 | H1 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ¥235.9bn | ¥235.3bn |
| Business profit | ¥6.8bn | ¥4.9bn |
| Operating profit/(loss) | ¥(5.9)bn | ¥5.2bn |
| Net profit attributable to owners | ¥295.4bn | ¥1.8bn |
| Basic earnings per share | ¥757.77 | ¥4.59 |
| Equity ratio | 58.9% | 30.5% |
The exit that flattered the bottom line
Strip out the property transaction and the picture is thinner. Group operating profit swung to a loss of ¥5.9bn from a profit of ¥5.2bn a year earlier, a decline of ¥11.1bn. Sapporo says a gain from selling production assets in its US business only partly offset restructuring costs and impairment charges, including a writedown tied to an absorption-type split agreement covering its vending-machine business. The company's preferred internal measure, business profit (revenue minus cost of sales and overheads), held up better: it rose 37.2% to ¥6.8bn from ¥4.9bn, helped by price increases and cost cuts in the food-and-beverage unit.
What the beer business actually did
Revenue from continuing operations, which excludes the now-deconsolidated property business, rose 0.3% to ¥235.9bn from ¥235.3bn (the whole group generated ¥506.9bn in revenue over the full previous fiscal year ). Domestic operations, one of just two segments Sapporo now reports after folding out real estate, posted revenue of ¥174.5bn, down 1.2%, while its business profit rose 32% to ¥11.7bn on pricing and cost actions; domestic operating profit still fell 2.1% to ¥8.1bn because of the vending-machine impairment.
Nationwide demand for beer and quasi-beer drinks combined fell 3% year-on-year and demand for beer alone was flat, as inflation pushed shoppers toward cheaper alternatives. Sapporo outperformed both: its combined beer and quasi-beer volumes held flat while beer-only volume rose 5%, a result the company attributes to marketing built around its Black Label and Yebisu brands rather than discounting.
The property gain also reshaped the balance sheet: equity attributable to shareholders rose to ¥512.9bn from ¥193.0bn, lifting the equity ratio to 58.9% from 30.5%. Basic earnings per share jumped to ¥757.77 from ¥4.59, a comparison also affected by a 5-for-1 stock split Sapporo carried out on January 1, 2026, applied retroactively to the prior-year figure.
A tax test still to come
Management says it will push harder into beer ahead of an excise-tax revision due in October 2026, while flagging continued uncertainty tied to Middle East tensions. The property gain will not recur. The operating loss it is currently covering for will still be there when it doesn't.