Honda Motor Co's <7267.T> operating profit for the last financial year will likely beat the company's estimate thanks to a weaker yen and better-than-expected sales in China, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Nikkei business daily said Honda is expected to book an operating profit of about 150 billion yen ($1.5 billion) for the year ended March 31, 10 billion yen more than the company had projected but still an 84 percent plunge from a year earlier.

Analysts on average see a profit of 142.3 billion yen for the past financial year, according to a poll of 18 brokerages by Reuters Estimates.

The yen was weaker than Honda's estimate in January-March, pushing up profit by over 20 billion yen, the paper said. Unit sales were also strong in China and grew by more than 2 percent in the quarter, it said.

(Reporting by Sachi Izumi)

China Nikkei 225