Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has today announced its consolidated financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter and the fiscal year ended 31 March 2012.
Fiscal Fourth Quarter (1 January – 31 March 2012) Summary Despite the unfavourable currency effects due to the appreciation of the Japanese yen and increase in R&D expenses, consolidated operating income for the fiscal fourth quarter (1 January to 31 March 2012) amounted to 111.9 billion Japanese yen (£855.7m), approximately 2.4 times greater than the same period of last year (46.2b), primarily due to the motorcycle business which saw an increase of 10.6% on the previous year and marked record-high unit sales globally for any quarter, increased unit sales across power products, increased revenue in the automobile business mainly in Japan and North America and decreased internal administrative expenses.
Fiscal Year (1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012) Summary Despite the increased revenue in the motorcycle business, consolidated operating income for the whole fiscal year (1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012) declined by 59.4% compared to the previous fiscal year and amounted to 231.3 billion yen (£1.76b), primarily due to the impact of decreased automobile production due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the flooding in Thailand, increased R&D expenses and the unfavourable currency effects due to the appreciation of the Japanese yen. Consolidated net income attributable to Honda Motor Co., Ltd. for the fiscal year amounted 211.4 billion yen (£1.61b), a 60.4% decrease from the previous fiscal year.
Honda plans for year-end cash dividends of JPY 15 per share (£0.11). Together with the quarterly cash dividends of JPY 15 for the first, second and third fiscal quarters, the total cash dividends to be paid for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012 are planned to be JPY 60 per share (£0.45), which is an increase of JPY 6 per share from the annual dividends paid for the year ended March 31, 2011. The year-end dividends are matters to be resolved at the general shareholders’ meeting.
Forthcoming Fiscal Year Forecast (1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013) Summary Whilst production and profit were severely affected by external factors during the last fiscal year, Honda continues to display a solid constitution and is planning a strong recovery during the forthcoming year, forecasting an all-time record of 4.3m automobile sales (compared to 3.1m during the previous year). This will be driven by new model changes for major models and the introduction of new models, coupled with expansion of production capacity in North America and China. Increases in motorcycle and power product unit sales to 16.6m and 6.3m respectively are also planned.
The total operating income (profit) forecast for Honda’s forthcoming FY13 period is 620 billion yen which represents a 168% increase from the 231.3 billion yen in the FY12 period. In the context of the extraordinary natural disasters during FY12 however which greatly affected Honda, this forecast increase to 620 billion yen in FY13 is more comparable and in context with the FY11 fiscal year operating income of 569.7 billion yen, and so represents a more understandable 9% FY13 forecast increase on that period.
The total cash dividends for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2013 are planned to be JPY 76 per share, an increase of JPY 16 from the annual dividends to be paid for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2012.
