Honda Motor Q2 profit falls 4 per cent, misses estimates

Honda Motor Co on Tuesday reported a 4.1 per cent fall in second-quarter profit, missing analyst estimates, as it struggles with product recalls in the United States and Japan that could delay the development of new models.

Japan's third-biggest automaker by revenue booked 164.4 billion yen ($1.52 billion) in operating profit for July-September, compared with a 184.1 billion yen mean estimate of 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The automaker also kept its forecast for the full year ending March 31 at 770 billion yen. The result comes as US consumers announced a lawsuit against Honda in relation to its recall of over 5 million cars carrying potentially defective airbags from Takata Corp. Last week, Honda also apologised for the fifth domestic recall of its Fit hybrid subcompact and said it would re-examine its process for developing cars.

Shares of Honda closed 0.7 per cent lower before the earnings release, compared with a 0.4 per cent decline in Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index.

(1 US dollar = 107.8200 Japanese yen)

(Reuters)