Good morning, everyone. Today, I would like to go over business results for the first six months of fiscal year ending March 31st, 2018. I will go over financial highlights and forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2018. First, financial highlights. The net sales, JPY 131.1 billion compared with previous period, 10.4% growth. Operating profit, JPY 28 billion, 3.6% growth. Profit attributable to owners of the parent, JPY 19.1 billion. That is due to the previous year, we had a revision of a tax treaty with Germany, favorable treaty, and a tax benefit of JPY 5.1 billion. Because of that, we had a negative growth. Overall, sales increased on both the local currency and yen basis in all geographic regions. Because of a foreign exchange impact, we had a positive JPY 5 billion for net sales.
For operating profit, the cost of sales rate was 2% down and 1.4% was due to foreign exchange impact. As you see, exchange rate fluctuation rates, net sales JPY 5.05 billion and lower the operating profit JPY 0.20 billion. Last year, we struggled with appreciation of yen, but this year we are seeing depreciation of yen, or it is normal situation to me, but it is favorable to us. Let's move on to breakdown of net sales and operating profit. As you can see, China has the biggest growth. Japan faced a severe situation, overall, we had an increase in net sales. For operating profit, we had a worsening cost of sales rate and SG&A expense increase, still we had a JPY 0.9 billion increase. As for a breakdown of assets and liabilities, there is nothing special to note on this slide. Consolidated cash flows.
Operating CF had a growth, for investing cash flow, we had a major increase. We acquired a company in U.K. called Oxford Gene Technology, and also we had a transfer of business of a distributor in Taiwan to start the direct sales. That was an M&A related increase in investment. Overall, it is a healthy trend. Next topics. We have divided into core businesses and next core businesses. For core businesses, we expanded our XN-Series product lineup. We launched a new smear preparation instrument. For coagulation and the reagent factory in the U.S., some people have seen it, the new plant.
For next core businesses, we acquired Oxford Gene Technology and Sysmex, RIKEN GENESIS and MKI signed comprehensive collaboration agreement with a view to joint promotion of genomic medicine and also commenced a collaborative research with National Cancer Center Japan, JVCKENWOOD, and Daiichi Sankyo on measurement of exosome in blood from cancer patients. For other items, Sysmex bioMérieux, a joint venture of Sysmex and bioMérieux, agreed to dissolve the joint venture agreement. That may have impact in the second half. Net sales by geographic region. As you can see on the right-hand side, as a local currency base or capability base. For Americas, 3% growth, 1.5% growth for EMEA, that is quite low, 16.4% growth for China. I will mention later as well for Americas, North America was strong, Latin America struggled. For EMEA, Middle East and Africa struggled.
They had a major deal last year, but we didn't have it this year. For China, we saw double-digit growth. So was Asia Pacific. Japan was flat. We are facing a severe environment in Japan toward the revision of insurance points next year. We have been informed that will be a tough change. As for foreign exchange, as you can see, we have a depreciation of yen, especially for EUR. Now it is over JPY 130. The situation second half will be more favorable, in my opinion. Sales by business. Hematology is 8.8% growth year-on-year and 4.2% at the previous year's rate. In Japan, we had a new product launch. In China and Europe, it is growing. In the U.S., FDA approval has not been granted yet. For immunochemistry, it was quite good.
Clinical chemistry, we have in Asia partially, and we purchased both reagents and instruments. Core business, 10% growth year-on-year. Next core business, FCM is still in development and not yet in full swing. Other than that, they are slightly growing. Next, geographic segment information for Americas. As mentioned earlier, 3% growth overall. U.S. alone, it is 8.1% growth, 12%, 9% growth for Canada. Unfortunately, Latin American performance was minus. One of the reasons is that we did not have a large-scale tender this year. Also, economic situation in Brazil is quite bad. In Brazil, Roche is a distributor there, but their performance has not been so good. Either way, in Americas, they had a steady growth. In the U.S. especially, we have something to look forward to. Recently, we had a CLIA waiver FDA approval.
Probably we will see the full launch activities in the second half and later. EMEA, 1.5% growth. Especially U.K., due to the impact of Brexit, the market is very slow, 5.5% down year-on-year. France is quite good. For Middle East and Africa, they had a major deal last year, but so far we have not had one this year. For Eastern Europe and Russia, they are growing at a good pace. China enjoyed a 16.4% growth, local currency basis. We had a new product launch for urine analysis. Hematology is good. The agent price was increased by 10%. Now we have intention to shift to direct sales, and that is the background for 10% increase for the price. Now we are paying 10% to distributors, but now we would like to gradually shift, especially in Sichuan province.
We have 300 sites using IT services, and we could reduce costs while increasing the value of the service by shifting to direct service. I am sure some were wondering about the inventory in China. China, as you can see, had a double-digit growth and a very good situation currently. Due to new product launch, the inventory level has not been reduced dramatically, but there is nothing to be concerned of at this point. China, as you can see, has a strong demand. They are now introducing new systems. How are we going to address them will be the challenge, but the market itself is very promising. For Asia Pacific, very good activities there. JPY basis, it is 17.1% growth. Last year, we had a large-scale tender in Australia, Sonic Healthcare. We have not had one this year, but in India, they won a big government deal.
Overall, we are seeing increasing trend. In Taiwan, we are shifting to direct sales. Japan, as you can see, the growth is flat, almost flat for domestic Japan. As mentioned earlier, now we expect a simultaneous revision of medical services and long-term care fees April next year. Now they're currently having discussion, but we have been informed that that would be a very tough change. On the other hand, as seen in the newspaper yesterday, the hospital and the general practitioners, the business management situation has been worsened, so we expect a political tug-of-war. The sales has been slow. The market has been slow. In Tokyo, large university hospitals in Tokyo are going through construction for new buildings in preparation for the Olympic Games in 2020. We do not know either next fiscal term or the one after, we expect the major deal.
However, we do not expect a significant growth in Japan considering the current situation. Next, consolidated earnings forecast. Let's look at the revised earnings forecast. Previous forecast was JPY 275 billion. At the additional JPY 5 billion, the current forecast is JPY 280 billion. This is due to foreign exchange impact, and that is a reason for revision. As you can see, announced in May 2017, foreign exchange rate was JPY 110 against USD, but the EUR has been increased from EUR 115 to EUR 128.1, and Chinese yuan too, increased from CNY 16 to CNY 16.5. So I think the current situation is quite comfortable for us. If yen depreciates further, and that is certainly our hope, that will be very favorable to us.
Operating profit, JPY 1 billion plus to JPY 58 billion, and profit attributable to owners of the parent, JPY 0.5 billion plus to JPY 41.5 billion as the current forecast. Consolidated earnings forecast. As I mentioned earlier, overall, the net sales is JPY 280 billion. Operating profit remains the same. The profit attributable to owners of the parent is almost the same as well. We have adjusted the foreign exchange impact. Next, the revised earnings forecast by region. Americas, slightly minus. EMEA, significant plus due to foreign exchange impact, and so is China. Americas, we are thinking of the next step for Latin America. Market itself is going through quite tough time. However, it is a very promising market. Roche is our distributor, but we have started a direct sales for urinalysis. For dividend forecast, 16th consecutive year of increases.
Initial forecast for fiscal year ending March 31st, 2018, was JPY 30 for interim dividend, JPY 30 for year-end, and that's JPY 60 total. Interim dividend for previous term was JPY 28. So we expect an increase of dividend, no change from the initial plan. Dividend increase for the 16th consecutive year. This is our current forecast.