Yamaha swings to profit of 7.3 bn yen in Q3

Japan's Yamaha Motor Co today posted a profit of 7.3 billion yen ($90 million) for the July-September quarter of the year on robust motorcycle sales in Asia region coupled with cost cutting measures.

The bike maker also revised upwards its full year profit outlook.

In the year-ago period, the entity had a net loss of 84 billion yen, Yamaha said in a statement.

Yamaha said its profits were derived from increased sales, mainly motorcycles in Asia, cost reductions realised through profitability structure reform, reduced expenses, and an increase in marginal profit as a result of a recovery in production in Japan.

The company's sales rose to 311.2 billion yen for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010 from 279.1 billion yen year-earlier. Thus registering a growth of 11.5 per cent.

Yamaha expects that growth momentum will continue and forecast a net income of 26 billion yen for the full fiscal year ending December 31, 2010 from 25 billion yen projected earlier, while its sales outlook remain unchanged at 1.3 trillion yen.

During January-September period of 2010, auto maker's sales grew 15 per cent from the same period of the previous fiscal year to 987.4 billion yen.

"This was mainly attributable to continued favourable sales of motorcycles in Asia (excluding Japan), Latin America and other emerging markets," the company said.

Motorcycle sales rose 13.2 per cent from the same period of the previous fiscal year, to 688.3 billion yen in the nine months period to September 2010 as sales increased significantly in Asia (excluding Japan), Latin America and other emerging markets by 3.3 percent to 543.4 billion yen from the same period of the previous fiscal year, while sales in developed nations decreased.