Tata Motors Q3 net profit down 25.5% at Rs3,581 crore

Tata Motors Ltd, India's biggest automaker by revenue, today reported a 25.5 per cent year-on-year fall in its net profit at Rs3,581 crore for the October-December 2014 quarter, impacted by losses in its domestic business.

Consolidated net (after-tax) profit (post minority interest and profit / loss in respect of associate companies) for the quarter stood at Rs3,581 crore, a decline of 25.5 per cent compared to Rs4,805 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the company said in a release.

Profit before tax for the quarter stood at Rs5,732 crore, a 6.4 per cent fall from the over Rs6,127 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Tata Motors, part of the $100 billion Tata conglomerate, reported a 9.6 per cent growth in consolidated revenues (net of excise) at Rs69,973 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2014, against Rs63,853 crore for the corresponding quarter last year.

Tata Motors said the continuing weak operating environment in the standalone business was more than offset by increase in wholesale volumes, richer product mix and market mix at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

Net (after-tax) profit (post minority interest and profit / loss in respect of associate companies) for the nine months ended 31 December 2014 was up 21.8 per cent at Rs12,270 crore, compared to Rs10,073 crore for the corresponding period last year.

Consolidated profit before tax for the nine months ended 31 December 2014 was up 37 per cent at Rs18,932 crore, compared to Rs13,816 crore for the corresponding period last year.

Revenue (net of excise) for the nine months ended 31 December rose 16.5 per cent to Rs1,95,220 crore against Rs1,67,516 crore for the corresponding period last year.

Tata Motors said positive economic sentiment, firm freight rates and improved freight availability, lower fuel prices and improved profitability of truck operators led to replacement demand which supported a 42.9 per cent year-on-year sales growth in the medium and heavy commercial vehicles (MHICV) segment.

However, LCV segments (mainly the SCV) continued to be impacted by low transportation tonnage and vehicle over-capacity as well as constrained financing environment. As a result, the overall CV sales were down 8.5 per cent in Q3 FY 2014-15.

In passenger vehicles, the new compact sedan Zest received a very strong and encouraging response from the customers. This led to the passenger vehicles segment of the company showing a growth of 4.6 per cent with car segment growth of 16.8 per cent in Q3 FY 2014-15.

Sales (including exports) of commercial and passenger vehicles for the quarter ended 31 December 2014, stood at 1,27,484 units, down 3.5 per cent, compared to the corresponding quarter last year.

Jaguar Land Rover wholesales and retails for the quarter ended 31 December 2014 stood at 122,187 units and 111,525 units respectively.

Revenues for the quarter stood at GBP 5,879 million, representing a growth of 10.3 per cent over GBP 5,328 million in the corresponding quarter last year.

Net profit for the quarter stood at GBP 1,096 million, representing a growth of 7.8 per cent over GBP 1,017 million in the corresponding quarter last year while operating profit (EBITDA) for the quarter rose 18.6 per cent year-on-year.