Scandal-marred Mitsubishi Motors said Tuesday growing sales in North America, Europe and Asia and an improved model mix helped cut its loss by 65 percent for the six months through September half-year period from the year before.
The company reported a net loss of 5.6 billion yen ($48.8 million) for the first half of its fiscal year, down from the 16.1 billion yen it posted the same period the previous year.
Sales rose 30.6 percent to 1.313 trillion yen ($11.45 billion) for April-September, up from 1.005 trillion yen for the same period the preceding year, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement.
The Japanese automaker has been struggling to reverse plunging sales after acknowledging in 2000 it had been covering auto defects for more than two decades, and announced a string of recalls.
The manufacturer, part of the broader Mitsubishi group that also makes aircraft, cell phones and robots, said it also logged its first operating and ordinary profits for the first time in five years.
In a sign that the worst may be behind it, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. last fiscal year turned a profit year for the first time in four years.
Mitsubishi, which did not break down quarterly earnings, said a weaker yen also helped its bottom line.
Looking ahead, the company left unchanged its group net profit outlook at 20 billion yen ($174 million) for the current fiscal year through March 2008. But citing strong overseas sales and yen's weakness, it revised upward its group sales outlook to 2.70 trillion yen ($23.5 billion) from 2.430 trillion yen.
A series of scandals have badly tarnished Mitsubishi Motors brand image, especially in Japan.
In 2000, it acknowledged it had been covering up auto defects for more than two decades, and announced a string of recalls. In 2004, however, it revealed it had failed to divulge all its problems in 2000 and had more concealed defects.
The report helped lift Mitsubishi shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, where they finished up 1.98 percent at 206 yen ($1.80).
