Apollo Tyres Ltd. has reported a dip in its consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter to ₹78 crore from the ₹84 crore recorded in the year-earlier period.
The company posted a net sales of ₹3,551 crore against ₹4,176 crore.
The Indian operations continued to grow in the replacement market for the full year in most of the product categories, led by a strong performance in the passenger vehicle segment, industrial tyres and light commercial vehicle segment.
The original equipment (OE) segment, though improved sequentially in the fourth quarter, remained under pressure for the full year. European operations as well saw growth in some of the product segments for the full year, said the company in a statement.
“Along with the demand in the replacement market, we saw some improvement in demand from OEs as well in the fourth quarter, before the widespread disruption caused by COVID-19 put us all in an uncharted territory. With lockdown easing, demand has started picking up gradually across product and market segments, giving us some relief,” said Onkar S Kanwar, CMD, Apollo Tyres Ltd.
Corporate assesses were given the option to apply for a lower income tax rate with effect from April 2019. However, Apollo Tyres said it did not choose the lower tax rate option during March 2020 quarter as it believed it would not beneficial to the company in the near future.
