Japan's Koito sees brighter profit on brisk auto lamp sales

Automotive lighting maker Koito Manufacturing now expects net profit to grow 31% to 74 billion yen ($678 million) in the year ending in March thanks to better-than-expected sales of light-emitting diode headlights in Japan and elsewhere in Asia. The new forecast out Friday is 3 billion yen higher than the previous projection and would represent a sixth straight year of record profit. Koito will likely book some 12 billion yen in extraordinary profit in the quarter ending in March from the previous sale of a Shanghai subsidiary.