Toyota Motor Corp. provided the clearest signal yet that it had drawn a line under the fallout stemming from its massive recall, reporting a surprise fiscal fourth quarter profit and predicting a surge in net profit this fiscal year as it aims to boost sales in Asia and cut costs.
The world's biggest car maker by volume said Tuesday it expects a steep 48% growth in net profit to Y310 billion in the current full fiscal year through March. It posted a net profit of Y112.2 billion in the three months ended March after recording a net loss of Y765.8 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Such an optimistic forecast is a clear sign that the company's major recall of over 8.5 million vehicles won't drag on to the point where it puts the brakes on the company's recovery after it fell into its first annual net loss in 59 years in the fiscal year ended March 2009.
"We are still in the middle of the storm. But we can see the sky starting to clear up far away," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at a press conference.
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