Beating market estimates, Tata Motors on Monday announced an almost three-fold increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,804.80 crore, driven by its British arm Jaguar land Rover, coupled with a one-time profit from sale of investments and tax write-back.
This is for the eighth straight quarter that JlR, which Tata Motors had bought as a sick company in 2008 and successfully turned around, has given an impetus to the parent's numbers. The company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 1,627.5 crore in the same period of the previous financial year, Tata Motors said in a statement. Net sales climbed 38.6 per cent to Rs 63,536.06 crore from Rs 45,821.31 crore.
JlR's profit after tax during the period surged to 619 million pounds from 296 million pounds in the year-ago period. Revenue advanced 40 per cent to 5,328 million pounds from 3804 million pounds. Wholesale sales volumes for JlR were up 22.7 per cent at 1,16,357 units, driven by models such as the Range Rover Sport, the new Range Rover and the Jaguar F-Type, along with the new XF and XJ variants, the company said.
On a standalone basis, Tata Motors posted a net profit of Rs 1,251.40 crore as compared to a net loss of Rs 458.49 crore in the same period a year earlier. Standalone net revenue declined to Rs 7,769.67 crore as against Rs 10,630.09 crore. “Going ahead, we expect headwinds in the standalone business to continue in the near term due to weak macro-economic environment which is expected to continue impacting the domestic volumes. However, we expect JlR to sustain its strong performance driven by continued momentum in the global luxury vehicle market and aided further by the strong product launch pipeline and the success of the newly launched models,” commented Angel Broking Analyst Yaresh Kothari. The company said its sales volumes dropped 35.7 per cent to 1,32,087 units on a standalone basis.Tata Motors shares rose 0.86 per cent to Rs 364 at the close on the BSE.