Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. has lowered its projections for consolidated net income and net sales for its fiscal first half ending Sept. 30, 2008.
The new projections, compared to the same period last year, call for the following:
* net income to decline 96.2%, to 500 million yen;
* net sales to increase 1.4%, to 257 billion yen;
* operating income to decline 54.6%, to 5.5 billion yen.
The revised projection for net income is 75% lower than the projection Yokohama announced on May 12, when the company announced its results for the previous fiscal year. The projection for net sales is 2.7% lower, while the projection for operating income is unchanged from the earlier projection.
Yokohama cited "the effect of disconcerting trends in financial markets on demand in the United States and Europe and in other markets" as the main reason for the downward revisions.
Aggravating the decline in profitability were the sharp appreciation of the yen, which diminished the yen-denominated value of foreign-currency assets; and an increase in taxes payable, "which reflected the partial relinquishment of a tax benefit related to the elimination of unrecognized gains on inventories," according to the company.
Yokohama Rubber posted net income of 2.9 billion yen on net sales of 123.1 billion yen for its first quarter ended June 30, 2008. Compared to the same period last year, net income was down 7.9%, while sales were up 1.3%.
