Failure to hedge foreign exchange translation satisfactorily continued to queer the pitch for Honda’s motorcycle business in three-quarterly results to 31 December 2016. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
Global sales volume of Honda-branded bikes during this nine-month period rose by 4.1% to 13.41 million units. Sales of machines made by wholly-owned subsidiaries were 7.7% up at 8.55 million units. But repatriated revenue fell by 7.7% to £8.93bn. Associated operating profit was 14% down to £938m and operating margin declined from 11.3% to 10.5%.
European volume was 2.7% up at 151,000 units, although revenue from Europe dropped by 8.7% to £549.8m. Asian sales stacked on 6.5% to 12.13 million units against revenue falling by 3.8% to £5.74bn. North American volume was 0.9% down on 217,000 units with revenue sinking by 6.3% to £855.5m.
Elsewhere performance was more firmly negative. Other regions — predominantly Latin America — saw volume shrivel by 18.1% to 809,000 units and revenue by 20.6% to £1.47bn. Honda’s Japanese domestic market also suffered as volume retreated by 19.6% to 111,000 units and revenue by 8.7% to £323.8m. However, currency woes had no impact on that.
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