The unstoppable motorcycling leviathan that is Honda has posted excellent half-yearly results to 30 September. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
Over the six-months, global sales of Honda-branded bikes were 11.8% up at 9.94 million units. Of these, some 6.69 million were made by wholly-owned subsidiaries, a 13.9% increase. Associated revenue grew by 21% to £6.72bn. Operating profit from the sector stacked on an impressive 62.4% to £971m. Operating margin improved from 10.8% to 14.5%.
European wholesale shipments rose by 11.7% to 134,000 units, yielding a 29.5% revenue improvement to £504.1m. North America saw its tally add 9.4% to 163,000, with turnover 16.6% up to £642.8m.
These figures were dwarfed by Asian volume, which was 12.6% up to 9.02 million. Honda’s results statement stressed performance in India, where its HMSI subsidiary achieved a 17.7% increase to 3.14 million — outstripping overall Indian market demand which was 10.2% up at 10.5 million. HMSI now has an annual production capacity of 6.4 million motorcycles and scooters, and is likely to use almost all of it. In total, Asia delivered a 23.9% revenue rise to £4.36bn.
The only down-side was “other regions” consisting primarily of Latin American countries plus West Africa, where product numbers declined by 2.9% to 533,000 units.
Covering its full fiscal year to 31 March 2018, Honda has forecast branded bike sales worldwide to grow by 8.6% to 19.18 million. Some 225,000 of those will be in Europe and 315,000 in North America. Asia will be responsible for 17.38 million.