Isuzu Motors Ltd. said Thursday its group net balance swung into the black in fiscal 2003 on brisk sales of trucks in domestic and Asian markets.

It said it scored record operating, pretax and net profits on a consolidated basis.

The truck and bus maker, owned 12.04 percent by General Motors Corp. of the United States, reported a group net profit of 54.71 billion yen, compared with a loss of 144.3 billion yen the previous year.

Its group pretax balance improved to a profit of 81.68 billion yen from a loss of 4.2 billion yen on a 6 percent rise in sales to 1.43 trillion yen.

Its operating profit jumped more than fivefold to 84.49 billion yen, partly due to cost-cutting efforts.

Per-share net profit came to 72.37 yen against the previous year's loss of 131.34 yen.

Isuzu said its domestic sales increased 13 percent to 1.064 trillion yen, with the number of vehicles sold surging 66.5 percent to 103,027 units, helped by the government's tougher exhaust emission regulations, which forced users to replace existing models.

In Singapore, China, the Philippines and Thailand, where the company has manufacturing units, its combined sales shot up 104.1 percent to 210.08 billion yen due to robust sales of pickup trucks in Thailand.

The carmaker will forgo payment of a dividend for the reporting year, as it did the previous year.