Amtek Auto posted a dismal set of numbers in the quarter to June as losses continued to widen for the company. Speaking BTVi, Amtek Auto Vice-Chairman and Managing Director John Flintham said the company hopes to come out of the woods once revenue picks up in the coming quarters. The company also plans to drastically reduce its debt burden.

During Q1, Amtek's loss had widened to ₹320 crore, but narrowed down slightly sequentially? Can you highlight what has led to the dismal performance? What has worked and what has not during the quarter?

I think the business fundamentally has quite some revenue hits. If we look at Q1, we all know the market was slightly down — passenger and commercial vehicles were been slightly down quarter-on-quarter. Year-on-year, the passenger vehicles were relatively flat although commercial vehicles were not quite as bad. Our revenues have fallen which has obviously affected the business. But primarily I think the management team has done a good job in holding the Ebitda margin. Our international businesses are fairly sound. A lot of the markets in Europe are very strong.

While you have been able to maintain the margins, when do you expect to make profits?

You have to look at it in two ways. First of all, the level of Ebitda is very good. We are seeing a little bit of uptick in the current quarter in quite a number of markets. And I hope that is sustainable. There is already speculation that this is the beginning of an upturn. I sincerely hope so. We already have good operating margins. The second thing is we already have too much of debt and our interest burden is too high. We have taken steps and are taking steps to address that issue through a number of options.

You have already shortlisted two bidders for Tekfor. What's the update on the sale procedure?

The approval for asset monetisation through sale of Tekfor is going on for some time. This is large business and there has been quite a bit of interest both inside the trade and also from financial investors. We have got down to a couple of bidders. The process was slightly stalled because of Brexit and the potential purchasers wanted to understand whether it will have any impact on the business. That is not completely sorted out whether it will benefit the investors. And the process is now on the fast track. I would confidently expect that it will be closed within the next couple of months.

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