TOKYO— Hoya Corporation (TOKYO: 7741) reported a 21 percent increase in revenues to 109,690 million yen for the third quarter ended Dec. 31, 2013 versus the year ago period. Profit before tax rose 66.7 percent to 29,499 million yen compared with the same quarter last year. Profit for the quarter was up 114.9 percent to 22,274 million yen.

Hoya noted that products related to smartphones and tablet PCs in its Information Technology segment trended at solid levels, but sales declined in the products related to digital cameras. Meanwhile, revenues from eyeglass lenses grew substantially in the Life Care segment due to a recovery from the flooding in Thailand, and increase in sales resulting from the transfer of the eyeglass lenses operation from Seiko Epson Corporation in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

Sales rose also because the contact lens and endoscope businesses showed healthy growth in addition to the effect of a weak yen, according to Hoya.

For the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2013, Hoya’s revenues rose 13.0 percent to 312,351 million yen and profit before tax was up 10.1 percent to 65,594 million yen year-on-year. Profit for the term was down 1.5 percent to 47,382 million yen, and profit attributable to owners of the company was down 4.9 percent to 45,663 million yen. Declines in profit were due mainly to temporary profits posted last year from insurance proceeds totaling 17,912 million yen related to the flooding in Thailand; excluding the factor, profits increased in real terms, Hoya said.

"Overall impression of the quarter was that eyeglass lenses and endoscope businesses in Life Care segment showed healthy growth, and profitability of Information Technology segment has improved," commented Hiroshi Suzuki, chief executive officer of Hoya. "For the coming year, there are some new medical products in the pipeline. We predict that Life Care segment will account for 70 percent of the entire sales in the future."