Truck maker Isuzu said today it would cut 9,700 jobs or 26 per cent of its workforce over the next three years in one of the biggest shakeups in Japan's auto industry.
Japan's top maker of light trucks, which is 49 per cent owned by General Motors, said its group net loss narrowed to euro 611 million in the latest year to March 31st, from a loss of euro 950 million a year earlier.
The loss was in line with the company's latest forecast and reflected slack sales, heavy costs to support dealers and bigger appraisal losses on securities holdings, the automaker said.
A newspaper report on Saturday about the restructuring, which surpasses job cuts of around 14 per cent at peers Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, sent Isuzu shares as high as 297 yen, up 6.45 per cent, in an early trade today.
Under the new business plan Isuzu also aims to cut group interest-bearing debt by euro 2.3 billion over three years by selling assets including its headquarters.