Subaru Projects FY 2018 Sales, Profit Falls on Stronger Yen

May 11, 2018

Tokyo- Major Japanese automaker Subaru Corp. said Friday that its group operating profit in fiscal 2018, which started in April, is projected to drop 20.9 pct from the previous year to 300 billion yen, with sales seen falling 4.6 pct to 3,250 billion yen.

Subaru blamed the yen's strengthening for the downbeat forecasts.

Meanwhile, the company expects its global vehicle sales to grow 3.1 pct to a record 1.1 million units in the current business year, with domestic sales projected to decrease 7.8 pct.

For fiscal 2017, Subaru reported an operating profit of 379,447 million yen, down 7.6 pct, due partly to recall costs of about 25 billion yen related to revelations since last autumn of inspection and data irregularities.

"We can't deny possible effects (of the scandal on our earnings in fiscal 2018), as we caused inconvenience to customers," Subaru President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga said. "We'll work in good faith for a sales recovery."