Bajaj Auto’s April sales dropped 2 per cent, with exports plunging 36 per cent, due to a slump in sales in Nigeria, the company’s largest market in Africa.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV India, Bajaj Auto’s President of Business Development, S Ravikumar said April domestic sales zoomed 30 per cent — motorcycles grew 25 per cent and three-wheelers grew 80-82 per cent.

What are the highlights of the Bajaj Auto sales during April? Why has there been a big knock on exports?

The highlight of this month has been a very strong showing in the domestic market, both in motorcycles and three-wheelers. In motorcycles, we grew 25 per cent in April 2016 compared to April 2015 — from about 1,60,000 units to over 2,00,000 units. And in three-wheelers, we grew from about 14,000 units to around 26,000 units, which is a growth of almost 80-82 per cent. So put together, there is almost a 30 per cent growth in the domestic market. Every single motorcycle that we launched right from January 2015, whether it was CT 100, Platinum, the three Avengers or the CT 100B, has been a success. On the back of that, from a sub-15 per cent domestic market share in bikes in January 2015, today we are sitting at a market share of about 20 per cent plus, which has been great. And in three-wheelers, we have seen very strong growth. We recently added Cargo and it has been spreading its wings. About 700 units of Cargo were sold in April.

Coming to exports, the problem has been Nigeria. The Nigerian currency was 156 Naira to a US dollar for most part of the last year but it started depreciating very rapidly and went down to almost 400-410 to a dollar. And in that type of macroeconomic scenario, there was turmoil in the market and retail sales collapsed.

In February, March and April, that is what panned out in our wholesale export numbers and we had about 100,000 units of exports. We already guided that exports will continue to be subdued in April also because we had to correct stocks. But we knew that the currency was always stabilising and the naira has stabilised at 250-270 to a dollar. Oil has been improving a bit and that is good for that economy. And the Nigerian government has taken some steps. On the back of that, in April itself, retail outlets have picked up 21,000 units of bikes and 2,000 units of three-wheelers.

Give us a sense of how Nigeria has been in context of African operations...

Nigeria has been a top market for us in Africa. And there is a lag in exports. Once I ship out it hits the market there maybe after two-and-a-half months.

Now, with the currency depreciating from 150 to 400 to a dollar, I have to adjust my stocks and dispatches. Now, with the currency stabilising there, customers are coming back and that boosted sales in April 2016 to 22,000 units.

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