The bottomline of the country’s largest automotive battery maker Exide Industries took a hit in the last fiscal due to an approximately ₹42-crore payment to the US-based Exide Technologies to settle a two-decade-long trademark dispute.

In May last year, Exide Industries announced an out-of-court settlement with Exide Technologies over the rights to use the ‘Exide’ mark in India.

According to the results declared on Monday, the deal had cost the company ₹41.83 crore, resulting in a four per cent decline in net profit in 2017-18 to ₹668 crore against ₹694 crore in 2016-17. The annual turnover increased by 11 per cent to ₹9,460 crore.

In 1997, after liberalisation, the US company decided to enter India. This was objected to by Exide Industries (formerly Chloride Industries), which acquired the right to use the brand name through its former parent Chloride in 1978.

The case went on for next two decades and in 2017, when the two reached an out-of-court settlement, the case was pending before the Supreme Court.

Financial performance

Exide Industries reported a near 16 per cent jump in net profit to ₹190 crore for the January to March quarter of FY18 against ₹164 crore net profit in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue from operations during the period under review stood at ₹2,459 crore.

According to the company, revenues are not comparable to previous quarters since there has been a change in the accounting treatment of indirect taxes after the roll-out of GST. “Volumes in automotive, motorcycle, inverter, UPS, telecom and solar batteries as well as infrastructure segments were strong during the fourth quarter,” Gautam Chatterjee, MD and CEO, Exide Industries, is quoted saying in a company release.

The board has also recommended a dividend of 80 paise (or 80 per cent), on each equity share of face value ₹1 each. Exide had on November 3, 2017, declared an interim dividend of ₹1.60 (or 160 per cent) on each equity share.

The total dividend stands at ₹2.40 (or 240 per cent).

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