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Japan's third-largest automaker said in a statement it estimated
additional spending of 44.8 billion yen ($363 million) after
Takata, its top supplier of air bags, agreed to an expanded
recall in the United States last month.
A Honda spokesman said the added quality costs had to be booked
for the year that ended on March 31, rather than during the
current year, due to accounting rules in the United States.
The revised earnings figures will be disclosed at the end of
this month, the company said.
Honda reported in late April an operating profit of 651.7
billion yen for the year ended March, down 13 percent from the
previous year.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ordered
Takata to declare more inflators defective last November, a
directive that the Japanese supplier only complied with last
month.
U.S. accounting rules would deem the extra spending for the
expanded recalls as something that should have been foreseen and
provisioned for during the last business year, the Honda
spokesman said.
Takata is at the center of the recall of millions of vehicles
equipped with potentially deadly air bag inflators, which can
explode with too much force and spray metal fragments inside
vehicles. Regulators have linked at least six deaths to the
component, all in cars made by Honda.
Honda declined to disclose the number of vehicles involved for
the estimated recall cost.
($1 = 123.4900 yen)
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Chris Gallagher and
Christopher Cushing)
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