TOKYO — Subaru on Monday posted a 15.7% rise in annual operating profit in the fiscal year that ended in March as it recovered from a raft of product recalls last year, but warned that sales of its cars would take a hit from the coronavirus outbreak.

Profit rose to 210.3 billion yen ($1.96 billion) for the year just ended, from 181.7 billion yen a year earlier under international financial reporting standards. It exceeded a consensus estimate of 204.7 billion yen profit drawn from 17 analysts polled by Refinitiv.

For fiscal 2019 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has posted its first operating loss in two decades. This is mainly due to a delay in the development of the first Japanese-made passenger jet.

The company reported a loss of 29.5 billion yen, or over 274 million dollars, from business activities for the fiscal year that ended in March. This came after the firm took a loss of about 2.42 billion dollars related to the Mitsubishi Spacejet project.

Japan's Defense Minister Taro Kono says a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer will start operating in the Middle East as soon as Wednesday.

The government dispatched the destroyer Takanami and aircraft to the Middle East for an intelligence gathering operation to safeguard commercial ships with links to Japan. The Takanami left the Yokosuka base, near Tokyo, on February 2.

Nissan Motor's operating profit shrank sharply during the nine months to December, mainly due to sluggish sales in the US and Europe.

Company officials say the figure was down 82.7 percent to 54.3 billion yen, or nearly 500 million dollars.