Honda's quarterly profit up on Asian sales growth

TOKYO (AP) — Honda says quarterly profit surged nearly 20 percent on strong demand for remodeled cars in Japan and elsewhere in Asia.

Honda Motor Co. reported Tuesday an April-June fiscal first quarter profit of 146.5 billion yen ($1.4 billion), close to what analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast.

It raised its annual profit forecast to 600 billion yen ($5.9 billion) from 595 billion yen ($5.8 billion).

Quarterly sales totaled 2.988 trillion yen ($29.3 billion), up 5 percent from a year earlier.

Honda, which sold 1.06 million vehicles in April-June, expects to sell 4.83 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March 2015.

The Tokyo-based maker of the Fit subcompact, Odyssey minivan and Accord sedan, sold 4.32 million vehicles last fiscal year.