Toyota eyeing record net profit of 2.4 trillion yen en for FY 2017

February 7, 2018

Tokyo- Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that it now expects to report a record group net profit of 2.4 trillion yen for fiscal 2017 through March, up from the previous estimate of 1.95 trillion yen made last November, thanks partly to corporate tax cuts in the United States.

The new forecast is up by 31.1 percent from its net profit in fiscal 2016.

The tax breaks in the United States are seen boosting the fiscal 2017 profit by 291.9 billion yen, according to the leading Japanese automaker.

Toyota raised its operating profit estimate from 2 trillion yen to 2.2 trillion yen, up 10.3 percent from the previous year, on the back of cost reductions and the yen's weakening.

The yen's drop is likely to boost profit by 240 billion yen. Without the effects of the weaker Japanese currency, Toyota's fiscal 2017 operating profit will likely decline by 55 billion yen from the preceding year, Koji Kobayashi, executive vice president of the company, told a press conference.

Toyota kept its assumed exchange rate for the full year unchanged at 111 yen to the dollar. But there are worries over a possible spike in the yen due to recent stock plunges.

"We'll establish an earnings base invulnerable to exchange rate fluctuations," Kobayashi said.

Toyota's fiscal 2017 group sales are forecast to grow 5.1 percent from the previous year to a record 29 trillion yen, up from the earlier projected 28.5 trillion yen.

Toyota expects its worldwide group vehicle sales to total 10.3 million units in fiscal 2017, up by 50,000 units from the earlier estimated level.

In the first nine months of the year, Toyota logged a group net profit of 2,013,177 million yen, up 40.5 percent from a year before, thanks to the US tax cuts. It is the first time for Toyota to see a group net profit of over 2 trillion yen for the April-December period.

Toyota posted an operating profit of 1,770,186 million yen in the nine months, up 13.8 percent, and sales of 21,796,974 million yen, up 8.1 percent. Jiji Press