TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp’s truck and bus unit Hino Motors said on Thursday its quarterly profit fell 21%, hit by an engine data scandal that has crippled its wide range of vehicle production .
It reported 12.3 billion yen ($84.66 million) in operating profit for the three months to the end of September, beating the 1.66 billion yen profit estimate in an average poll of seven analysts at Refinitiv.
The result compares with last year’s 15.6 billion yen profit.
The truck maker also forecast on Thursday an operating profit of 6 billion yen in the current fiscal year that ends in March 2023. Analysts on average had expected an operating loss of 16.2 billion yen.
It was embroiled in a reputation-damaging emissions data scandal this year affecting 640,000 vehicles after it admitted to falsifying data on some engines in 2003.
Hino blamed an inward-looking corporate culture and a failure by management to communicate adequately with workers that led to an environment that placed more priority on meeting schedules and numerical targets than following processes.
The Japanese truckmaker is facing a class-action lawsuit in the United States, where it and its parent Toyota are accused of historical misconduct. Hino and its Australian subsidiary are facing another lawsuit from customers who bought, leased or purchased its trucks.
Hino became a subsidiary of Toyota in 2001 and almost all of Hino’s presidents have been Toyota employees.
The scandal led to the resignation of three executives and a senior official last month.
($1 = 145.2900 yen)
(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)