Honda has announced its financial results for the third quarter of its 2015/2016 financial year (the period to December 31st 2015).
Third quarter Honda Group motorcycle unit sales were 4,407,000 units, down by -0.178 percent on the 4,585,000 units sold in the final quarter of 2014, but 12,882,000 units for the nine months to date, up +4.03 percent.
After reducing its 2015/2016 full-year motorcycle sales forecast from 18.225 million units to 17.515 Honda Group unit sales worldwide following its second quarter results, the company has moved to further lower expectations - forecasting that it will have sold 17.190 million units by March 31st 2016, the end of its current financial year (this would mark a 0.402 percent decline on reported sales of 17.592 million units for its 2014/2015 full-year).
Overall corporate consolidated operating profit was 163.0 billion yen, a decrease of -22.3% compared to the same period last year, due to profit-reducing factors such as an increase in selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses that include quality-related expenses and unfavourable currency effects.
This was despite profit-increasing factors such as an increase in profit from changes in sales volume and model mix, as well as cost reduction efforts.
Overall corporate consolidated operating profit for the fiscal nine months (April 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015) amounted to 567.2 billion yen, a decrease of -3.0% compared to the same period last year.
Despite favourable currency effects associated with depreciation of the Japanese yen, reflecting the latest forecast for consolidated unit sales, the previously announced forecast for consolidated sales revenue for the current fiscal year (April 1, 2015 through March 31, 2016) was revised downward by 50.0 billion yen to 14.55 trillion yen.
Reflecting the positive effect of cost-reduction efforts, the forecast for consolidated operating profit for the current fiscal year will remain unchanged from the previous 685.0 billion yen. This is despite a decline in consolidated unit sales, an increase in quality-related expenses and unfavourable currency effects reflecting recent trends with the currencies of emerging countries. The forecasts for consolidated profit before income taxes and profit for the current fiscal year attributable to owners of the parent will remain unchanged from the forecasts announced previously.
The quarterly dividend for the fiscal third quarter will be 22 yen per share, and total cash dividends to be paid for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016 are expected to be 88 yen per share.
