Mitsubishi post profit at 30.5 bn yen in Q4

Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors Corp today said it is back in the black, posting a net income of 30.5 billion yen ($325 million) for the January-March period of the year, driven by cost-cutting measures and vehicle demand in the Asian region.

In the previous year, the company experienced a net loss of 50.1 billion yen, Mitsubishi said in a statement.

Total revenues rose by 56 per cent from the year-ago period to 493.5 billion yen in the fourth quarter of FY2009.

In a separate statement, Mitsubishi said it has entered into an agreement with French firm PSA Peugeot Citroen to produce a compact sport-utility vehicle as early as 2012 for Europe. The company expects to produce 50,000 SUVs a year.

For the full fiscal ended March, Mitsubishi registered a net income of 4.76 billion yen and sales of 1.446 trillion yen.

Although sales volume decreased in Central and South America and Middle Eastern nations, the Asian region has shown significant gains over the last fiscal year. Sales volumes for the region came to 532,000 units, an increase of 25,000 units year-on-year.

In particular, sales in China showed an over 60 per cent increase compared to the previous fiscal year. Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and other markets in the region also contributed to the gain.

The auto maker said that operating income increased by 10 billion yen over the last fiscal year to 13.9 billion yen, "mostly due to thorough cost reductions implemented as emergency countermeasures in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis in the latter half of fiscal year 2008 and carried through this fiscal year".

Mitsubishi expects a three-fold jump in its net profit to 15 billion yen for the current fiscal year through March, 2011, and sales to increase 31 per cent to 1.9 trillion yen in the said period.