Toyota Looks to Double Profits

It was revealed on Wednesday that Toyota

said that, while income for the fiscal year ending in March had dropped, it is expecting profit for the current fiscal year to more than double to 760 billion yen. That number will be helped, the company said, by new models of vehicles, as well as an improvement in the global economy. It would certainly be a welcome improvement for Toyota, which has been drastically under-achieving of late, struggling to get even close to the record 1.2 trillion yen that it pulled in back in 2008. Not long after that, with the party streamers barely put back in the drawer, the company suffered an historic loss in the midst of the global economic crisis. A recall crisis didn't help the company's cause at all. According to a statement from TM, net income fell 31% from the previous year to 283.6 billion, thanks in no small part to the disasters that have hit Japan as well as the strong Japanese currency. It is tough on Toyota, which had performed remarkably well in the January-March quarter, quadrupling profit to 121 billion yen compared to the previous year. “In recent years, we have suffered periods of hardship. This year, I am determined to show tangible results of all our internal efforts in order to reward our stakeholders who supported us during these difficult times,” said CEO Akio Toyoda. However, the company is predicting good times ahead, and it believes that strong additions to the lineup will boost profit to 760 billion yen in the next year through March 2013. If that comes off, they will be TM's best results since 2009, though analysts were still hoping for better. An average prediction came in at 817.7 billion yen. Before the announcement, share in TM closed at 3,145 yen in Tokyo. Shares had gained 22.6% this year. It sounds as if Toyota is placing an enormous amount of faith in the new models. All of the company's eggs are in one basket. The new vehicles include a Prius C hybrid subcompact and a fully electric RAV4. Whether those two prove to be as popular as TM is predicting remains to be seen.