Daihatsu Motor Co. reported higher sales and pretax profits on a consolidated basis for the 1999 business year due to improved sales of minivehicles, company executives said Tuesday.

The automaker also said that it scored record sales on an unconsolidated basis.

On a group basis, the carmaker posted 27.1 billion yen in pretax profits, up 80.4 percent from the previous year, on sales of 983.6 billion yen, up 10.3 percent for a second consecutive year of rise.

Consolidated operating profits ballooned 74.4 percent to 28.7 billion yen, while net profits leaped to 12.1 billion yen, compared with 3 billion yen a year earlier.

Daihatsu's overall group sales also rose in volume. Sales of minivehicles, which have an engine displacement of less than 660cc, rose 11 percent to 500,031 units. However, sales of small cars with engine capacity between 2,000cc and 661cc slumped 31.2 percent to 83,646.

On an unconsolidated basis, the Toyota Motor Corp. subsidiary posted record sales of 852.5 billion yen, up 9.4 percent from the previous year, with pretax profits rising 41.4 percent to 20.2 billion yen.

Daihatsu predicts consolidated pretax profits of 30 billion yen and group sales of 990 billion yen for fiscal 2000, which ends next March 31. On an unconsolidated basis, the firm forecasts pretax profits of 22.5 billion yen and sales of 860 billion yen. In addition, it has set its domestic sales target for the current business year at 520,000 vehicles.

The group's overseas sales target is set at 105,000 vehicles, the automaker said.

For the previous business year, the Daihatsu group sold 485,000 vehicles on the domestic market and 98,000 overseas, the company said.