Toyota mulls substantial cuts in executives' bonuses in FY 2008

NAGOYA, Dec. 14 Kyodo -
Toyota Motor Corp. is considering substantial cuts in bonuses paid to its
executives in fiscal 2008 as part of cost-cutting efforts amid rapidly
deteriorating business performance, informed sources said Sunday.
The pay cuts, which may result in bonus payments being skipped altogether, will
be endorsed at a shareholders' meeting next June, the sources said.
The nation's top automaker is also mulling cutting executives' salaries, they
said.
The moves come as Toyota is likely to further revise downward its group
earnings projections for the current fiscal year ending March next year.
In fiscal 2007, Toyota paid a total about 1 billion yen in bonuses to some 29
board members and a total 64.5 million yen to seven auditors.
In addition to the bonuses, the automaker also paid a total of about 2.85
billion yen in executives' salaries in fiscal 2007.
Toyota has already cut winter bonuses for managerial officials by 10 percent
from the year before.
In early November, Toyota lowered its earnings estimates for fiscal 2008. At
that time, Toyota anticipated a group net profit of 550 billion yen, down 68.0
percent from a year before, and an operating profit of 600 billion yen, down
73.6 percent, on sales of 23 trillion yen, down 12.5 percent.
But its earnings have deteriorated further since early November due to
continuing declines in global auto sales and the yen's sharp appreciation
against the U.S. dollar and the euro.
Toyota is now expected to report an operating loss of about 100 billion yen in
the October-March period.