Toyota boosts full-year forecasts on weaker yen

Toyota thinks it will avoid booking a second straight year of double digit decline in profit thanks to expectations for a weaker yen helping to boost their financial forecasts for the full-year.

The Japanese carmaker kept mum on rumours it was set to announce a partnership with Mazda that would see the pair invest in a new assembly plant in the US, but said it would hold a joint press conference with Mazda later in the evening, Tokyo time.

Thanks in part to a jump in sales in its home market, Toyota reported an 11 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit to ¥613bn in the three months ended June 30 on on a 7 per cent rise in first quarter revenue to ¥7.05tn.

That came in well ahead of the median analyst forecasts for net profit of ¥470.2bn and revenue of ¥6.67tn, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.

At its full-year results presentation in May, the company warned it would suffer a double-digit decline in net profit for the second year owing to a stronger yen and slowing car sales in the US.

It now thinks it will be able to avoid this, thanks to a increased full-year forecast to ¥1.75tn compared to the May estimate of ¥1.5tn that would have represented an 18 per cent year-on-year drop.

Image: Reuters