Mitsubishi slashes FY2024 net profit forecast by 76% due to poor sales, increased competition

Mitsubishi may think it could be better off not joining the potentially sinking ship that is the Honda-Nissan merger, but it’s not doing so well on its own. The company has just slashed its net profit forecast for its fiscal year 2024 ending March 31, 2025 by a staggering 75.7% to just 35 billion yen (RM1.02 billion).

That’s a decrease of 109 billion yen (RM3.17 billion) from the 144 billion yen (RM4.18 billion) it predicted just last May. The company cited poor wholesale sales, increased selling expenses due to stiffer competition, the impact of inflation on areas such as supplier support and other accumulated expenses for this drastic recalculation. By comparison, Mitsubishi earned 154.7 billion yen (RM4.49 billion) in FY2023.

The company also revised its sales forecast down slightly from 895,000 to 848,000 units, although even this lower figure is higher than what it sold in FY2023 (815,000). A lot of that comes down to lower sales in Southeast Asia, specifically in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia in third quarter; the brand’s market share also shrank in Malaysia.

“There was a demand of one million vehicles annually in Thailand in the past,” said CEO Takao Kato during Monday’s earnings call, according to Motor1 citing Nikkei Asia. “It has not recovered significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic, decreasing even more rapidly in the financial years of 2023 and 2024 due to the high level of household debt.”

Kato added that while Mitsubishi is leaning against joining the aforementioned Honda-Nissan merger (which itself is now in doubt), it’s unlikely the company “will not be involved at all,” adding that the company will take a wait-and-see approach with regards to how the merger plays out before making any decision about when and how to get involved.

“Our strengths are in plug-in hybrids, [Asia-Pacific] market presence, and a product lineup focused on pickup trucks,” he said. “We are looking at how these could be utilized and what kind of support we can expect in the North American market and developing auto intelligence—both of which we are not so strong in.”

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