Despite a sluggish performance in India, Tata Motors reported a strong 140 per cent growth in its consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter of 2011-12 at Rs.6,234 crore against Rs.2,637.52 crore in the year-ago period, on the back of impressive numbers from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
Consolidated revenues grew 44 per cent to Rs.50,908 crore on strong volumes across markets and consolidated profit before exceptional and tax was up 68 per cent at Rs.4,596 crore.
Operating profit margin improved to 14.1 per cent (13.8 per cent).
The board recommended a dividend of Rs.4 per share of Rs.2 each for the year.
For the whole of 2011-12, it reported a 45 per cent higher consolidated net profit of Rs.13,517 crore on a 35.6 per cent higher consolidated revenue of Rs.1.66 lakh crore
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, C. Ramakrishnan, CFO, Tata Motors Group, said, going forward “in India, there is likely to be impact of slower industrial growth, weaker economic outlook and the customer preference for smaller, diesel vehicles. These could impact overall demand. However, on the positive side, there is an easing of availability of finance and interest rates are expected to moderate.”
JLR's impressive show
Jaguar Land Rover's net profit grew 165 per cent to 696 million pounds on a 51.5 per cent higher revenue at 4.14 billion pounds for the quarter ended March 31, 2012.
Sales increased by 48 per cent to 98,021 units with China sales up 19 per cent (12.8 per cent).
For 2011-12, the net profit grew 43 per cent to 1.481 billion pounds on 37 per cent higher revenue of 13.51 billion pounds.
Ralf Speth, CEO, JLR, said “Chinese demand for Range Rover is strong and though we could not achieve our target to become Number 2, we could do it this year.”
Mr. Ramakrishnan said, “with strong operating cash flows, we expect to self-support JLR's growth strategy of around 2 billion pounds capex in the current year.”
Indian operations disappoint
On a standalone basis, for the quarter ended March 31, 2012, Tata Motors net profit was marginally lower at Rs.565 crore (Rs.573 crore) on a 14.4 per cent higher revenue of Rs.16,391 crore.
For 2011-12, Tata Motors' standalone net profit slipped almost a third to Rs.1,242 crore (Rs.1,812 crore) on a 15.3 per cent higher revenue of Rs.54,307 crore. Profitability was impacted by exceptional items of Rs.585 crore due to exchange loss. P. M. Telang, MD-India, Tata Motors, said the company had a capex of Rs.3,000 crore for the year.
Mistry on board
Meanwhile, Cyrus P. Mistry, Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons, has been inducted in to the board of Tata Motors as a director, says a release.
