Tuesday Nov 14 2000 | Updated 0017 hrs IST 1347 EST -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mitsubishi H1 net loss doubles at $701m

TOKYO DAMAGED by a strong yen and a defects cover-up scandal, Mitsubishi Motors on Monday said its half-year consolidated net loss nearly doubled from a year earlier.

Japan's fourth-largest automaker said group net loss was 75.63 billion yen ($701 million) in the six-month period ending September 30, up 96 per cent from 38.53 billion yen ($357 million) in the same period a year ago.

Sales have been slipping amid disclosure that the company had for two decades been hiding consumer complaints about defects that included failing brakes, leaking fuel and malfunctioning clutches. None of the defects are known to have resulted in fatal accidents.

Government regulators recently filed criminal charges against the automaker for systematically concealing reports of defects that would have warranted recalls.

The yen's strength against the dollar - which makes Japanese products more expensive in the United States - also cut into the company's earnings. For much of the April-September period last year, the dollar bought around 120 yen. Now it is trading under 110 yen.

The company's group sales fell 1.5 per cent to 1.543 trillion yen ($14.3 billion) in the six-month period from 1.566 trillion yen ($14.5 billion) a year earlier. But the company said it forecast sales for the whole year to reach 3.4 trillion yen ($31.5 billion).

The last couple of months have been the hardest. The company reported earlier this month that sales plunged 27.7 per cent in October to 15,443 units. The decline follows a 16.4 per cent drop in September.

Mitsubishi, which agreed recently to sell a 34-per cent stake in its operations to Germany's DaimlerChrysler, has seen its business sputter since the cover-up scandal surfaced.

Mitsubishi in July recalled 620,000 cars and trucks. It acknowledged it had been hiding complaints and quietly repairing defective vehicles since at least 1977, and was fined 4 million yen ($37,000).

Sales in September were down about 20 per cent from the same month a year ago. - AP

http://www.economictimes.com/today/14worl01.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 13, 2000

Answers

I've read recently that when a company annouces a problem you can expect a followup report saying that they orginal estimate was about the final number. And again we're seeing that.

Many Thanks!!! Martin

-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), November 14, 2000.