TOKYO -- Denso Corp., the world's biggest auto parts maker by market value, posted a 14 percent rise in half-year profit on Tuesday on the back of brisk overseas sales by top customer Toyota Motor Corp.
Denso, which gets just under a half of its revenues from Toyota, made a group operating profit of 91.62 billion yen ($844.9 million) in the six months to September, compared to 80.1 billion yen a year before.
The profit easily beat an estimate of 83 billion yen by research firm Toyo Keizai.
Denso did not provide a full-year operating profit forecast, but boosted its recurring profit target for 2003-04 by 6.5 percent to 179 billion yen.
Recurring profit is pretax and excludes extraordinary items.
Denso, 23.4 percent owned by Toyota, has also been boosting sales of car air conditioners, diesel fuel injection systems and car navigation systems to U.S. auto makers including General Motors.
