Toyota’s Fourth-Quarter Income Drops 4%

Slipping sales and a stronger yen caused Toyota Motor Corp.’s revenue and profits to slide in the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31. The company warns its profits in the new year could shrink by more than one-third.

“The tide has shifted” on exchange rates that helped Toyota deliver three consecutive years of record profits, says President Akio Toyoda. Recent earnings, he adds, “have been above the level of our true capabilities.”

Toyota’s fourth-quarter revenue dipped 2% to 7 trillion yen ($64.2 billion). Operating profits dropped 14% to 548 billion yen ($5.1 billion), and net income contracted 4% to 427 billion yen ($3.9 billion). Unit sales receded 2% to 2.46 million vehicles. Toyota says a swing in exchange rates cost 150 billion yen ($1.4 billion) in the fourth period alone.

Full-year operating profit advanced 4% to 2.9 trillion yen ($26.7 billion), and net income climbed 6% to 2.3 trillion yen ($21.2 billion). Revenue rose 4% to 28.4 trillion yen ($261 billion), even though retail deliveries slipped 1% to 10.09 million cars and trucks.

But Toyota says its net income in the current fiscal year could plunge 35% to 1.5 trillion yen ($13.8 billion). The company expects exchange rates will take away 935 billion yen ($8.6 billion) in operating profits.