Honda Motor earnings boosted by strong Asian sales

0

TOKYO: Honda Motor, Japan’s second largest automaker, said yesterday its profits soared almost seven-fold in the latest quarter from a year earlier, helped by increased sales in India and China.

BETTER PERFORMANCE: Honda Motor’s executive vice-president Koichi Kondo announcing the company’s third quarter financial result at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo yesterday. Honda Motor said its profits soared almost seven-fold in the latest quarter from a year earlier, helped by increased sales in India and China. — AFP photo

BETTER PERFORMANCE: Honda Motor’s executive vice-president Koichi Kondo announcing the company’s third quarter financial result at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo yesterday. Honda Motor said its profits soared almost seven-fold in the latest quarter from a year earlier, helped by increased sales in India and China. — AFP photo

The maker of the Insight hybrid and the Civic and Accord cars sharply hiked its earnings forecasts, offering another ray of hope for the battered sector.

Honda posted a better-than-expected net profit of ¥134.6 billion  (US$1.5 billion) for the fiscal third quarter through December, up from ¥20.2 billion in the same period of the previous year.

Also with robust sales in the rest of Asia, cost-cutting helped to boost the group’s bottom line, offsetting an 11.5 per cent drop in revenue in the quarter to ¥2.24 trillion.

For the full financial year which ends next month, Honda raised its net profit projection to ¥265 billion from 155 billion, and its revenue target to ¥8.53 trillion from 8.45 trillion.

Honda was the only one of Japan’s top three automakers to post a profit for the financial year to March 2009, outperforming Toyota and Nissan which suffered heavy losses.

Like other Japanese carmakers, Honda is pinning hopes on sales of fuel-efficient cars to help it recover from the fallout of the global downturn.

It suffered a setback last week when it recalled 646,000 vehicles worldwide due to a fire risk, in a fresh blow to Japanese makers’ reputation for quality after a series of massive recalls by world number one Toyota. — AFP