Suzuki Motor Q3 op profit up 31%, keeps forecast

Suzuki Motor Corp, Japan's number four automaker, posted a 31% rise in quarterly profit on Monday on brisk sales in Asia, but stuck to its conservative forecasts as competition intensifies in its key Indian market.

Suzuki has enjoyed robust earnings growth compared with most domestic rivals thanks to its limited exposure to the stronger yen and heavy weighting in India, where majority-held unit Maruti Suzuki India Ltd sells every other car.

But falling margins in India due to rising raw materials prices and a slowdown in the country's car market have weighed on Suzuki's shares, which have been the worst performer among Japanese auto stocks in the past three months.

In the October-December third quarter, Suzuki's operating profit jumped 31% to 23.64 billion yen (USD 287.7 million), in line with an average estimate of 24 billion yen in a survey of four analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

For the full year to March 31, the maker of the SX-4, Swift and other compact cars kept its operating profit forecast at 100 billion yen. A survey of 21 analysts puts the profit at 115.8 billion yen, up 46% from last year.

"We review our business every six months, and this time we did not revise our forecasts," Senior Operating Officer Takao Hirosawa told reporters.

For the nine months through Dec. 31, operating profit came to 92.46 billion yen, just shy of its full-year forecast.

Auto sales in India grew a record 31% in 2010, driven by a burgeoning middle class in Asia's third-largest economy, but analysts expect sales growth to slow to around 12% to 15% this year, reflecting a likely hike in interest rates and rising fuel and vehicles costs.