Amara Raja Batteries Limited has registered a big jump in its profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2019 of Rs 218.85 crore as against a profit of Rs 120.23 crore for the corresponding quarter in previous financial year.
This represents the highest ever profit reported in a quarter by the company in spite of challenging automotive sector market.
The batteries major reported a revenue of Rs 1695.31 crore in Q2 FY 20 as against Rs 1753.05 crores, registering a de-growth of 3 per cent.
The Earnings Per Share (EPS) for Q2 FY 20 was at Rs 12.81.
The Board of the Directors of the company declared Rs 6 per equity share (representing 600%) on face value of Re 1 each as interim dividend for the financial year 2019-20.
Both automotive and industry battery businesses have recorded healthy volume growth during the quarter barring automotive OE segment. The demand for Amaron and Powerr Zone brands registered significant up tick in replacement market in 4 wheeler as well as 2 wheeler segments.
Jayadev Galla, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Amara Raja Batteries Limited said, “While we are encouraged by the continued growth of our brands in replacement markets in both domestic and international markets, we are cautiously evaluating the trends in OE segment and calibrating our investment plans appropriately. We believe that continued technology upgradation and widening product portfolio to meet emerging customer needs will help us navigate through the demand cycles and sustain our growth momentum.”
S Vijayanand, CEO, Amara Raja Batteries Limited said, “Continued engagement with our key customers is helping us align with their strategic plans and collaborate to implement product enhancements and cost optimizations. This helped us gain higher share of business with customers across Telecom, UPS and automotive OE segments. Investments into digital transformation projects and capacity additions are progressing as per plan. The quarter also helped us improve our cash flows due to lower inventory costs on account of softer commodity prices.”