Toyota hikes profit guidance
November 5, 2014Toyota boosted its full-year earnings forecast on Wednesday saying it expected net profit to reach 2 trillion yen (13.9 billion euros, $17.5 billion), rather than the previously forecast 1.78 trillion yen.
The world's biggest auto maker by sales also said operating profit for its business year ending March 31 would be 200 billion yen higher and revenue was estimated to jump from a previous 25.7 trillion yen to 26.5 trillion yen.
Sales were expected to fall, however, from an envisaged 9.10 million vehicles to 9.05 million, Toyota said.
The revised profit guidance was mainly the result of exchange rate gains to the tune of 135 billion yen in the wake of a weakening yen. The Japanese currency passed 113 yen to the US dollar this week for the first time since December 2007 after Japan's central bank announced a further easing of monetary policy.
"Of course exchange rates helped, but we also made efforts to offset negatives such as a rise in fixed costs, with cost-cutting and sales efforts," Executive Vice President Nobuyori Kodaira told a news conference.
Kodaira also unveiled results for Toyota's second fiscal quarter ending September, in which net profit soared 23 percent from a year earlier to 539 billion yen.
In the period, sales grew 4.3 percent to 6.55 million vehicles, and were especially strong in the United States.
uhe/ng (dpa, AFP, Reuters)