Yamaha’s land mobility division, the vast majority of which concerns motorcycles and accounts for about two-thirds of its entire turnover, dragged the company into negativity during the first half of 2020. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
Six-monthly divisional revenue declined by 23.8% to £3.09bn, And the period concluded with an operating loss of £48.6m. Turnover attributable to motorcycles was 25.6% down to £2.713bn. Global bike sales volume fell by 32.1% to 1.709 million.
Asia took the hardest knock as overall volume in the region sank by 35.5% to 1.364 million bikes and related revenue dropped by 32.9% to £1.564bn. In order of guilt, Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Thailand were the biggest losers. Revenue from Latin America and other emerging markets was 24.2% lower at £314m.
In the developed world, European volume shrank by 9.2% to 99,000 bikes and revenue was 7.3% down at £521m. North American sales saw a 12.5% decrease to 28,000 and turnover falling by 7.4% to £146m. The Japense domestic market was 9.7% down to 42,000 and 7.7% in arrears at £131m.Â
At group level, Yamaha’s total half-yearly revenue fell by 19.9% to £4.955bn. Operating profit plummeted by 72.3% to £138m. The bottom line was a net loss of £20m. Its full-year forecast features only slight revenue recovery and a break-even target. Annual wholesale motorcycle shipments to dealers in developed markets should reach about 90% of the previous year’s tally. But predictions for emerging countries are all over the place. Â