OREANDA-NEWS. Subaru maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. expects to log its best pretax profit ever this fiscal year and intends to hike its annual dividend by 5 yen a share to 20 yen.

The company said Wednesday that it sees group pretax profit climbing 74% to 175 billion yen in fiscal 2013, citing higher sales and a weak yen. This would mark its second straight year of record pretax results.

Fuji Heavy forecasts global vehicle sales to reach an all-time high of 752,000 units, up 4% on the year. It expects a 4% drop in Japan but reckons that the Impreza compact and the newly redesigned Forester sport utility vehicle will remain strong sellers in the key North American market. Group sales are projected to rise 7% to 2.05 trillion yen, topping 2 trillion yen for the first time.

Operating profit is expected to jump 49% to 180 billion yen. With nearly 80% of its new vehicles sold abroad, Fuji Heavy has seen a big improvement in export margins owing to a falling yen. Its fiscal 2013 projections assume an exchange rate of 90 yen to the dollar, which translates into 63.9 billion yen in additional operating profit. Should the actual rate remain near 100, a boost on the scale of 70 billion yen is estimated to emerge based on a formula of 7.5 billion in additional profit for every 1 yen decline relative to the greenback.

For the year ended March 31, Fuji Heavy reported sales growth of 26% to 1.91 trillion yen and a 170% surge in pretax profit to 100.6 billion yen.