Mazda Motor plans to restart dividend payouts during its medium-term business plan that runs to the end of March 2016, chief financial officer Kiyoshi Ozaki told Japan’s Nikkei business newspaper.
The automaker will not pay a dividend for a third year in a row in fiscal 2012. After piling up net losses for four straight years to the end of fiscal 2011, its accumulated deficit reached roughly JPY140bn yen on 31 March. The company will work to build up profits and boost its group capital ratio to around 35%, compared with 24.5% at the end of March.
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Mazda will use its fuel-efficient Skyactive technology in new models to improve profitability, as well as cut costs by JPY20bn-30bn a year to the end of fiscal 2015.
By accumulating retained earnings, “we hope to resume dividends” at an early stage of the medium-term business plan, Ozaki said.
In March, Mazda tapped the capital markets to raise funds for the second time in two and a half years. “We needed to shield the firm from credit concerns,” Ozaki said.
Plans announced earlier this month to double issuable shares to JPY6bn sparked concerns among stockholders of another offering.
“We’re always thinking of contingencies,” Ozaki said regarding the increase in authorised shares.
But he stressed that another offering was out of the question under the current management team, noting that doing so would severely undermine the market’s confidence in the company.
