Mahindra and Mahindra’s fourth quarter net profit after exceptional items increased 26.3 per cent, aided by growth in tractor sales. Profit in the three-months ended March 31 rose to ₹874 crore from ₹691.51 crore a year ago. Revenues grew 5.2 per cent to ₹12,289 crore.
Standalone net profit grew 19.9 per cent to ₹725.16 crore in the quarter from ₹604.63 crore a year ago.
“We had a quite a challenging financial year with hardening of commodity prices, demonetisation and sudden shift towards BS-IV emission norms from BS-III. Despite that we’ve shown a good growth,” said Pawan Goenka, Managing Director and CEO, M&M.
M&M took a one-time hit of ₹171 crore in the quarter on account of discounting and inventory cost following the Supreme Court’s judgment on banning sales of Bharat Stage III vehicles from April 1. The company also saw a one-time gain of ₹93 crore from the sale of long-term assets.
The company’s revenue from the automotive sector in the quarter rose 1.8 per cent to ₹7,612.77 crore from ₹7,476.72 crore a year ago, while farm equipment revenue rose 18.35 per cent to ₹2,701.97 crore from ₹2,283 crore last year. Volumes in the auto segment declined 1.8 per cent to 1,40,509 units in the quarter from 1,38,047 units in the last year quarter. Farm equipment segment made up for that loss as volumes rose 15.5 per cent to 50,145 units, up from 43,415 units last year. On a full-year basis, auto sales grew 2.5 per cent to 4,69,384 units within which the SUV segment saw a decline of 5.3 per cent due to poor sales of TUV1OO and KUV 1OO. Goenka said the company will launch refreshes for both the models this year to boost sales.
M&M said it will be investing ₹600-800 crore to ramp up capacity expansion for its electric vehicles. In anticipation of increased demand with government support, M&M said it will more than double EV capacity to 1,000 vehicles in the next six months and start a new factory in Chakan, Maharashtra in two years’ time.