Maruti Suzuki's fourth quarter profit up 16 percent on higher sales of premium models

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Maruti Suzuki India Ltd , the country's top-selling car maker, posted a 15.8 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by increases in sales of premium models such as the Brezza SUV and Baleno hatchback.

Net profit for the three months ended March 31 rose to 17.09 billion rupees ($266.64 million) from 14.76 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter, the company said in a statement.

The profit figure however slightly missed analysts' average estimate. Analysts had expected the company to post a profit of 17.56 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Total income from operations of Maruti, which is majority owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp <7269.T>, rose 20.4 percent to 207.51 billion rupees. The company sold a total of 414,439 passenger vehicles during the quarter, up about 15 percent from the year ago period.

($1 = 64.0950 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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