Bridgestone has bosted its operating profit forecast for 2009 24% on Thursday, noting the yen was less strong than it expected.
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The upgraded outlook also reflected improved prospects for demand in Japan and Europe in the second half of the year, deeper-than-targeted cost cuts and falls in materials prices, a Bridgestone spokesman told Reuters.
The company raised its full year assumed rates for the dollar from JPY85 to JPY95 and JPY115 to JPY128 for the euro.
Japan’s largest tyremaker had cancelled its 2009 guidance early last month when it more than tripled its first half operating loss forecast, blaming a slump in global demand.
Bridgestone has now forecast an operating profit of JPY56bn (US$582.3m) for this year, up from its 19 February estimate of JPY45bn, the report added.
But that is below the average projection of JPY64bn by 13 analysts in a Thomson Reuters Estimates poll, most of whom have remained neutral or bullish on Bridgestone even after it downgraded its half-year outlook on 8 May.
Bridgestone also revised up its half-year earnings projections but slashed its net earnings projection for the full year to break even instead of a JPY3bn profit.
The spokesman said the downward revision in net earnings was due to the company’s new accounting rule to reflect tax payments on unrealised sales immediately instead of compensating for such payments on paper until the sales are realised.
Michelin said last week it saw no recovery in the global tyre market before the middle to end of 2010, the report noted.
