Nippon Sheet Glass Co., the world's largest supplier of glass used in buildings & cars, forecasts annual profit will rise almost fourfold after it acquired Pilkington Plc. Net income may rise to 30BN yen ($260M) for year ending March 31 from 7.76BN yen a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said 12 July in a statement. Sales are expected to rise to 680BN yen from 265.9BN yen. Nippon Sheet's £1.8BN ($3.3BN) acquisition of Pilkington, completed last month, adds plants in 24 countries & helps it to compete with Asahi Glass in serving Toyota Motor Co & other carmakers as they press for global supply contracts for windshields & other auto parts. The purchase also cuts the company's reliance on glass for TVs & computer screens. ``The forecasts are reasonable, and not surprising,'' said Katsumi Hosoi, head of investment research at Maruhachi Securities Co. ``I expect little reaction in trading tomorrow as the effect of the acquisition was already factored in the share price.'' Nippon Sheet Glass also said today it will take a 5.5 billion yen charge to redeem bonds of Pilkington, and post a gain of 42.2 billion yen gain from selling stock holdings. St. Helens, England-based Pilkington's revenue is divided almost equally between glass used by the construction and auto industries. The acquisition will increase Nippon Sheet Glass's sales from building glass to 333.5 billion yen from 124.4 billion yen, and boost sales from auto glass to 256 billion yen from 55.7 billion yen, according to the statement.
