Dongfeng Motor 2012 profit beats analyst estimates

Dongfeng Motor Group Co, China's biggest maker of Japanese-branded cars, reported a full-year profit that beat analyst estimates even as sales declined. Net income fell 13 percent to 9.1 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), the Wuhan-based company said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

That surpassed the 8.4 billion yuan average of 31 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales fell 5.6 percent to 124 billion yuan. Dongfeng is recovering from Chinese consumer aversion toward its Japanese partners' products after a wave of protests erupted in September due to Tokyo's illegal "purchase" of China's Diaoyu Islands.