Mazda Raises Earnings Outlook

TOKYO October 31, 2002; Yuri Kageyama writing for the AP reports that Mazda Motor Corp. raised its earnings outlook Thursday for the first fiscal half and said it was on its way toward meeting targets for the whole year.

The No. 5 Japanese automaker, which is 33.4 percent owned by Ford Motor Co., expects profits for the fiscal 2002 half ending in September to more than quadruple to 5.5 billion yen ($45 million) from 1.3 billion yen for the same period the previous year.

That's up 3.5 billion yen ($28 million) from the initial projection, according to the Hiroshima-based company, which also credited a weaker yen against the euro for lifting its overseas earnings.

Revenue for the first half will rise 12 percent from a year ago to 1.16 trillion yen ($9 billion) from 1.04 trillion yen, an upward revision of 29.3 billion yen ($238 million), it said. Mazda releases first half earnings Nov. 12.

``We are optimistic about our future as we continue to build on a record of delivering on our commitments,'' President Lewis Booth said in a statement. ``We are achieving sustainable, profitable growth, although we are seeing increased pressure on our net revenue.''

Mazda also said it will meet its profit targets for the fiscal year ending in March 2003 of 26.5 billion yen ($216 million), three times the 8.8 billion yen earned the previous year on sales of 2.3 trillion yen ($19 billion), which was also up nearly 12 percent from fiscal 2001.

Initially, Mazda had forecast 20 billion yen ($163 million) in profits. In fiscal 2000, Mazda lost 155 billion yen due to huge retirement costs for tackling long needed job cuts.

After a year without new models, Mazda has begun selling the Atenza sedan, called Mazda6 in the United States, and the new Demio subcompact. Both are selling relatively well. The RX-8 sportscar is planned for early 2003.

Mazda is hoping to ship about 1 million vehicles worldwide in fiscal 2002, up from 948,000 last year.