Mazda Achieves Positive Operating Profits in Fiscal Year Ending in March 2010

DARTFORD, UNITED KINGDOM – April 29, 2010: Mazda Motor Corporation published its financial results for fiscal year (FY) 2009, highlighted by an operating profit of 76 million euro, which is up 303.2 million euro over FY 2009. Despite a drop in revenues of about 15 percent due to a difficult sales environment, Mazda realised a free cash-flow of 540 million euro and ordinary profit of 37 million euro during the period April 2009 through March 2010.

A positive trend in sales in some major markets resulted in a FY 2010 sales volume of 1,193,000 units, which exceeded global sales objectives by 13,000 units. In Japan, Mazda sold 221,000 units (+ 2,000 units), in China 196,000 vehicles (+ 61,000 units), in North America sales stood at 307,000 units, down 11 percent, and in Europe sales stood at 239,000 units, which was down 25.8 percent.

Mazda is optimistic about the current fiscal year, and is forecasting an upturn in global sales based on new products like the all-new Mazda5 C-MAV, first time launch of the sub-compact Mazda2 in North America, and its ongoing introduction of environmentally-friendly technologies like Mazda i-stop. In addressing what the company will concentrate on over the short term, President and CEO Takashi Yamanouchi said “We must focus on Monotsukuri Innovation, our Building Block Strategy and optimising our next-generation products’ performance, quality and costs. The successful completion of each of these tasks will ensure profits in every profit category in the next FY ending in March 2011, and beyond that, it will spur future growth.”

Mazda Motor Corporation also announced a mid and long-term business plan that will realise a global sales volume of 1.7 million units, an operating profit of 1.36 billion euro – which would represent a record for the company – and a return-on-profit of 5 percent.