TOKYO: Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to do business with Nissan Motor Co. in Southeast Asia, in a bid to improve its earnings by concentrating managerial resources in the region, Mitsubishi Motors Chief Executive Takao Kato said Thursday.

"We've been considering whether we can work together with Nissan in Indonesia and the Philippines," Kato told an annual shareholders meeting held in Tokyo.

Kato's comments came after his company posted a group net loss of 25.7 billion yen for the year that ended in March due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

In May, Mitsubishi and its two alliance partners--Nissan and France's Renault SA--drew up measures to streamline their businesses by clarifying their roles. Mitsubishi, for its part, will lead the alliance's operation in the Southeast Asian market, where it has a strong presence.

"The novel coronavirus has been drastically changing the business and social environments surrounding the auto industry," Kato said, underscoring the importance for swiftly coping with the changes in cooperation with the partners.

JIJI Press