Honda Motor Co., Ltd., (NYSE:HMC) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 9, 2023 1:15 AM ET
Company Participants
Shinji Aoyama - Director, Executive Vice President and Representative Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer
Eiji Fujimura - Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Daniel Leussink - Reuters
Unidentified Company Representative
Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend our briefing today. We would now like to start Honda Motor Company Limited’s Financial Results Briefing for Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2024.
First of all, allow me to introduce the attendees today. Mr. Shinji Aoyama, Director, Executive Vice President and Representative Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
Shinji Aoyama
Good to see you, everyone.
Unidentified Company Representative
And Mr. Eiji Fujimura, Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer.
Eiji Fujimura
Good afternoon, everyone.
Unidentified Company Representative
Mr. Aoyama will first present an overview of the financial results of first half of financial year 2024 and full year forecast, then Mr. Fujiwara will present the details for the results and the forecast.
Over to you.
Shinji Aoyama
Thank you very much for your usual understanding on Honda’s business activities. I will explain the financial results of the second quarter of our FY 2024 and its full year forecast. Let me touch upon the highlights of the results. Regarding the cumulative results of the -- until our second quarter FY 2024, we had high profits in Motorcycle businesses, in addition to the significant improvements of our profitability in Automotive businesses, where production volume had recovered mainly in North America and delivered competitive products to customers.
The operating profit increased by JPY 243.1 billion to JPY 696.5 billion, and operating profit margin was 7.2%. Free cash flow of the operating companies, excluding that of the financial businesses reached JPY 732.9 billion, well exceeding the level last year-on-year. In terms of the business forecast of the FY 2024, although tough market environment exists in China and Asia, we will up-revise the previous forecast of sales revenue, operating profit and the profit for the period, reflecting additional strength in the profitable structures as well as the foreign currency impact.
For shareholders’ returns, we plan to increase the dividend by JPY 24 from the highest-ever dividend of the JPY 150 until the share split to JPY 174. We announced share buybacks at the Financial Press Conference on May 11th, 2023. And the amount of the share buybacks as of October 31st was at JPY 163.5 billion for the upper limit of JPY 200 billion.