Mitsubishi Motors Corp., hit hard by the repercussions of a recall coverup scandal, suffered consolidated net losses of 278.14 billion yen for fiscal 2000 -- the biggest in the firm's history -- due to smaller sales and extraordinary losses.

The figure, announced Friday, was a sharp tumble from net losses of 23.3 billion yen a year earlier.

The automaker said its group sales declined 1.7 percent to 3.277 trillion yen, due mainly to slack sales in the domestic market. The group sold 1,444,000 vehicles worldwide, down 3.6 percent.

On top of the sluggish sales, the group had extraordinary losses stemming from restructuring-related measures, a one-time writeoff of the shortfall in its pension and retirement reserves and recall-related expenses, it said.

Those costs translated into losses of 232.77 yen per share, following the previous year's 23.33 billion yen in losses, or 24.87 yen per share. The group's pretax account also showed losses of 94.06 billion yen.

On a parent-only basis, Mitsubishi Motors posted net losses of 356.9 billion yen and pretax losses of 82.35 billion yen on sales of 2.013 trillion yen.

It plans to skip dividend payments for the fiscal year that ended March 31.

For the current fiscal year, the automaker projects no profits or losses in its consolidated net and pretax accounts, while expecting the group's sales to amount to about 3.5 trillion yen.

On its unconsolidated account, it forecasts 10 billion yen in losses in both the pretax and net accounts, on sales of 2 trillion yen.