TOKYO - TOYOTA Motor Corp is to promote Mr Akio Toyoda, a founding family scion and executive vice-president, to president in April, Japanese daily Asahi reported on Tuesday.

The report, which did not cite sources, comes a day after the world's biggest automaker forecast a first-ever annual operating loss, blaming a relentless sales slide and a crippling rise in the yen in what it said was an unprecedented crisis in its 70-year history.

The change in top management is aimed at improving business performance, Asahi said. Current President Katsuaki Watanabe, who has headed Toyota since June 2005, will become vice-chairman, the paper said.

A Toyota spokesman said nothing had been decided.

Automakers around the world face their toughest business environment in recent memory, caught in a sharp reversal of demand as the financial crisis spreads, squeezing credit and consumer sentiment.

Toyota cut its group operating forecast to a loss of 150 billion yen (S$2.46 billion) for the year to end-March. It made a record profit of 2.27 trillion yen last year.

Mr Toyoda, a grandson of company founder Kiichiro Toyoda, has been responsible for the firm's Japanese and overseas operations.

This is the first time in almost 14 years that a member of the founding Toyoda family would hold the company's presidency, Asahi said.

Mr Toyoda is scheduled to attend a news conference on Thursday in Tokyo to jointly launch a car with Daihatsu Motor Co. -- REUTERS