Honda Motors witnesses 61% jump in net profit during Mar quarter

NEW DELHI: Japanese car manufacturer Honda Motors posted 61% rise in net profit to 71.59 billion yen ($871 million) during the January-March quarter of this year boosted by the higher sales.

The entity had witnessed net profit of 44.5 billion yen during the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011, said Honda in a statement.
The firm's net sales rose by 8.7% to 2,405 billion yen in the fourth quarter ending march 2012, strengthened by the rise in sales of automobile and motorcycles.

A statement from Honda, reads, “A swift recovery in auto production after the earthquake and flood, along with new model momentum mainly in Japan and North America, led to a big rise in sales.”

The revenue from Asian operations slipped by 17% to 391.5 billion yen, mainly due to the earthquake and flooding in Thailand.
The company bagged positive response from Indian operations mainly on the account of Brio sales.

In regard to the segments, automobile unit sales totaled 988,000 units in the quarter under review, witnessing 14.9% rise as compared to the same period last year positively effected by higher sales in North America and Japan.

Apart from sales of motorcycles of 3.45-million units during three months ended March 31, 2012, registering 17.8% rise from the year-ago period, mainly due to the rise of sales in Asia and South America.