Bridgestone reports 49% increase in net income, misses analyst targets

Bridgestone Corporation has report increases in its full-year sales and strong increases in profitability, with net-income up 49 per cent compared with the 2013 financial year. Net sales amount to 3,673.9 billion yen (£20.161 billion; 27.108 billion euros; US$30.951), up 3 per cent or 105.8 billion yen. Operating income amounted to 478 billion yen (£2.623 billion; 3.526 billion euros; $4 billion), up 9 per cent or 39.9 billion yen. And net income was 300.5 billion yen (£1.649 billion; 2.217 billion euros; $2.531 billion) up a huge 49 per cent.

The company’s tyre operations reported sales of 3,093 billion yen (£16.975 billion; 22.824 billion euros; $26.059 billion), up 2 per cent or 56.4 billion yen. 2014 tyre-generated operating income was 435.8 billion yen (£2.391 million; 3.215 billion; $3.671 billion).

However, financial analysts suggested Bridgestone Corporation’s results were short of expectations. Morgan Stanley, for example, wrote that the firm’s sales of 3,673 billion yen fell short of the 3,720 billion yen they the investment bank had estimated. Likewise operating profits of 478 billion yen didn’t make it to the 484 billion yen forecast. And despite the rapid increase in net income, the 300.6 billion yen figure was short of Morgan Stanley’s 309 billion yen estimate.

European business could be expanded

Like other Japanese tyremakers, such as Toyo Tire, Bridgestone suggested that domestic sales were positively impacted by last-minute demand associated with the increase of the country’s consumption rate. In Europe unit sales of car and light truck tyres is reported to have decreased, while sales of truck and bus tyres “increased strongly” compared with the firm’s 2013 performance.

Moving forward, the company’s annual financial statement suggests Bridgestone executives are considering “expanding the jurisdiction of the Europe strategic business unit (SBU) to include the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and Russia”.

View further Bridgestone Corporation financial details here.

Source: Bridgestone