Scandal-plagued Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will suffer a hefty net loss of 60 billion yen ($560 million) in the six months to September, a report said Thursday.
The Japanese firm's interim group results will sink deeper into the red, after it reported a 38.5-billion-yen net loss for the same period in 1999, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said.
Japan's fourth biggest automaker is spending about 7.5 billion yen on vehicle recalls, after confessing to concealing customer complaints about defective vehicles for decades.
The big interim net loss would also be caused by Mitsubishi Motors, 34-percent owned by German-US giant DaimlerChrysler AG, writing off unfunded pension liabilities, the report said.
"The Nihon Keizai article is mere speculation," responded Mitsubishi spokesman Noriaki Okoshi.
"We cannot make any announcement at this stage," he told AFP.
"It is true that the recall is estimated to cost some seven billion yen in Japan and 500 million yen overseas."
For the full year to March 2001, "Mitsubishi will most likely be forced to revise its earlier projection of a group net loss," the newspaper said, without specifying a new figure.
Mitsubishi had forecast a net loss of 70 billion yen for the 12 months.
"We will make efforts to bring the results closer to our target," Okoshi said without elaborating.
In the past year to March, Mitsubishi reported a group net loss of 23.33 billion yen, blaming a strong yen and Japan's sluggish economy.
The debt-ridden company's troubles have intensified since the cover-up scandal first came to light in Japanese newspaper reports last month, forcing Mitsubishi to recall more than 700,000 vehicles worldwide.
Police raided five Mitsubishi offices, including its Tokyo headquarters, on Sunday after the company confessed last week to having hidden customer complaints about defective vehicles since at least 1977.
The cover-up was exposed by a whistle-blower who prompted a Transport Ministry inspection of Mitsubishi last month.
The inspection found documents on faulty vehicles stashed away in employees' lockers at Mitsubishi's head office, although the company claimed this was because of lack of space.
The company has denied media reports that Mitsubishi president Katsuhiko Kawasoe plans to resign next month when the ministry is set to announce preliminary punishment, possibly including criminal charges, over the scandal.
Mitsubishi's battered share price edged up one yen, or 0.3 percent, to 353 yen on Thursday morning, despite the reported big losses. — (AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
