Tata Motors’ consolidated net profit more than tripled to ₹5,398 crore during the first quarter ended June 30 on buoyant sales from its British subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
The company had posted a net profit of ₹1,726 crore during the corresponding period last year.
The automaker’s revenue on a consolidated basis rose 38 per cent to ₹64,682.83 crore during the quarter compared with ₹46,796.47 crore a year ago.
However, impacted by the continuing slowdown in the industry, the company’s standalone net profit fell 78.65 per cent to ₹393.65 crore against ₹703.26 crore in the year-earlier period.
“Macroeconomic factors continued to impact the demand for the entire commercial vehicle industry.
Light commercial vehicles (LCV) in particular continued to be severely impacted due to financiers’ pullback,” Chief Financial Officer C Ramakrishnan told reporters here.
“The company under-performed the industry mainly to correct the inventory across the channels for providing maximum room for the upcoming new products such as the Zest,” he added.
Tata Motors’ standalone revenue also declined to ₹7,704.76 crore (₹9,104.50 crore), while vehicle sales fell 28 per cent to 1,10,612 units during the quarter.
“We are seeing some movement in the medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) industry, the first positive movement in the last nine quarters. For the LCV segment, it would need some more quarters,” said Ravindra Pisharody, Executive Director, Commercial Vehicles at Tata Motors.
Motilal Oswal Securities had estimated the company to earn a consolidated net profit of ₹3,500 crore.
JLR to the rescue Luxury carmaker JLR continued to perform well with its revenues rising more than 30 per cent to £5,353 million (£5.35 billion).
JLR’s wholesale sales rose 27.1 per cent, while retail volumes grew 22 per cent during the June quarter.
“This reflects a solid demand for our new JLR line-up. We want to build on the sales momentum from the Range Rover Sport, Jaguar F-Type launches. There was a good volume growth with high double digits in Europe. The US, Middle East and North Africa are also picking up,” said JLR Chief Executive Officer Ralf Speth.
Zest launch today Tata Motors is launching the Zest, a compact sedan, on Tuesday in Mumbai.
The company, which has been losing market share in car business, expects the Zest to help it regain its market position. Tata Motors shares closed at ₹447.40 on the BSE on Monday.