Nov. 5, 2009 (The Yomiuri Shimbun) -- Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM) said Thursday it had narrowed its full-year net loss outlook by 400 billion yen, a sign of recovery boosted by robust sales of eco-friendly cars.
For fiscal 2009 ending in March, the company now expects a group net loss of 350 billion yen, as opposed to the 750 billion yen projected in August.
Toyota's operating loss for the current business year is likely to fall below last fiscal year's deficit of 461 billion yen.
The improved earnings outlook was largely due to government incentive programs worldwide that helped sales of the company's Prius hybrids and other eco-friendly cars surpass sales projections made by the firm in August.
The world's largest automaker also raised its full-year sales outlook to 18 trillion yen, up 1.2 trillion yen from its August projections, while projecting its net loss to shrink by 250 billion yen to 200 billion yen.
Toyota is anticipating an improved balance sheet with a projected sales increase of 250 billion yen and a cut of 100 billion yen by trimming labor and other fixed and material costs.
The company also said it now anticipates selling more vehicles this fiscal year, boosting its global forecasts to 7.03 million units from August's projection of 6.6 million. The forecasts include figures for its group companies Daihatsu Motor (OOTC:DHTMY) Co. and Hino Motors Ltd.
For the April-September period, Toyota posted a group operating loss of 136.8 billion yen, down 31.3 percent compared with a profit of 582 billion yen a year earlier. It also booked a group net loss of 55.9 billion yen, against a year-on-year profit of 493.4 billion yen.
For the July-September quarter, however, the automaker returned to the black, posting a 21.8 billion yen profit, helped by a strong performance from its financial arm. But its core automobile business remained in the red.
Toyota said it expects to log a loss of 200 billion yen for the October-March period. However, the company likely will find it difficult to achieve its goal of returning to profitability in fiscal 2010.
