Bridgestone Corp., Japan's biggest automobile tire maker, said Thursday it posted a consolidated net profit of 17.74 billion yen in the business year which ended December, down 80 percent from the previous year.
Profit per share plunged to 20.60 yen from 103.97 yen.
The Tokyo-based company attributed the steep profit fall to the recall of 6.5 million tires made by its U.S. unit, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., which resulted in an extraordinary loss of 81.42 billion yen.
Certain types of Firestone tires were allegedly linked to traffic accidents resulting from tread separations.
Consolidated pretax profit contracted 37.8 percent to 124.79 billion yen on a 3.8 percent fall in group sales to 2 trillion yen.
Of the total group sales, tires accounted for 1.56 trillion yen, down 5 percent, due to the yen's appreciation and higher materials costs, Bridgestone said.
The company's consolidated earnings projection for the current business year includes a net profit of 48 billion yen, up 171 percent over the preceding year, and a pretax profit of 100 billion yen, down 20 percent, on a 3 percent drop in sales to 1.95 trillion yen.