March 31, 2003 – Finance Digest
Suzuki Expands Reporting Data
Another Japan-based manufacturer, Suzuki Motor Corp., says it posted a group net profit of 40.48 billion yen on sales of 1,613.47 billion yen for the nine months ended Dec. 31. Comparable figures for the same April-December period a year earlier were not available because the company started to release the nine-month earnings data for the first time this year, it said.
In its consolidated earnings report, the automobile and powersports manufacturer said it marked a pretax profit of 70.17 billion yen. Net profit per share was 75.47 yen.
For the full fiscal year to March 31, Suzuki forecasts a net profit of 35 billion yen and a pretax profit of 85 billion yen on sales of 2,120 billion yen. Last year the company logged a net profit of 31.02 billion yen and a pretax profit of 79.19 billion yen on sales of 2,015.31 billion yen.
Kawasaki Plans For Europe
Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. reportedly plans to sell 13% more motorcycles in Europe during 2004 than it did during 2003.
The company intends to launch sales of six new models in Europe in 2004 and ship 72,000 units for that market, according to information provided by Asia Pulse news service. In 2003, KHI introduced six models to the European market, but shipped only 64,000 units.
Worldwide, Kawasaki says it plans to ship a total of 477,000 motorcycles during 2004, up 3% from 2003. It says it expects domestic shipments to decline 4% to 22,000 units, while its shipments to North America and other non-European markets are projected to rise 3% to 95,000 units and 2% to 288,000 units, respectively.
Yamaha Earnings Fall
Yamaha Motor Co. says its group pretax profit fell 6.5% in the April-December period from a year earlier to 55.50 billion yen, partly due to a slump in North American sales induced by a stronger yen.
Inventory adjustments in the North American market and sluggish domestic sales more than offset increased sales in the rest of Asia and Europe, Japan’s second-largest motorcycle maker said, reporting that group sales fell 0.5% to 761.93 billion yen in the nine months ended Dec. 31.
Yamaha Motor posted a 47.1% rise in group net profit to 35.05 billion yen due to a one-time gain of 11.1 billion yen from the return of the proxy portion of employee pension fund assets to the government. Net profit per share was 141.42 yen, up from 103.09 yen a year earlier.
The company kept its group earnings outlook for the full year to March 2004 unchanged, forecasting a net profit of 40 billion yen and a pretax profit of 71 billion yen on sales of 1.02 trillion yen.
