Coke Femsa says first-quarter profit rises on sales increase

Latin America's biggest Coke bottler Coca-Cola Femsa on Wednesday said its first-quarter profit rose 9.3 percent, helped by an increase in sales.

The company reported a quarterly profit of 2.398 billion pesos (US$139 million). Revenue for the January to March period was 37.1 billion pesos, up 7.9 percent on the first quarter of 2015.

Coke Femsa, which operates across Latin America and also in the Philippines, said sales in Mexico and Central America rose 12.9 percent in the quarter, helped in part by the appreciation of Central American currencies compared with the Mexican peso.