Bajaj Auto Q3 net profit up 10.5 percent, beats estimates

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto reported a better-than-expected 10.5 percent increase in quarterly net profit, helped by foreign exchange gains and as higher revenues from exports helped offset weak demand for its vehicles.

The company, for whom exports contribute more than a third of sales, said net profit for the October-December quarter was 9.05 billion rupees, compared with 8.19 billion rupees a year ago.

The company also benefited from a foreign exchange contract related gain of nearly 1 billion rupees during the quarter.

The average estimate of 15 analysts was for a profit of 8.82 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Export revenue rose 23 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, the company said on Thursday, although total sales in volume terms fell nearly 12 percent.

Its operating margin -- said to be the best in the industry -- was 21.1 percent in the quarter, wider than 19.8 percent reported a year ago.

Shares of the company, which is India's biggest exporter of two-wheeler vehicles and three-wheelers such as tuk tuks, were trading up 0.8 percent at 1,908 rupees in afternoon trade in a Mumbai market that was down 0.3 percent.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Sunil Nair)