(EDS: Correcting spelling of Mayank Parekh in thecopy)Mumbai, Nov 9 (PTI) Largest automaker by revenue TataMotors reported a three-fold spike in group net at Rs 2,502crore for the September quarter, driven by a one-time excisegain of around Rs 535 crore, cost-reductions at the planningand strategic levels and better margins and volumes at itsBritish cash-cow JLR.
Group revenue inched up 10 per cent to Rs 70,156crore, while net income vroomed past 195 per cent from Rs 848crore a year ago, the company said here this evening.
The numbers would have been higher had it not been fora Rs 2,393-crore forex hit on revenue side and Rs 112 crore onthe post-tax side that the company took during the quarter.
The British marquee JLR reported a massive 38 percent spike in pre-tax profit at 385 million pounds driven byan 11.5 per cent rise in revenue to 6.3 billion pounds.
This helped the company book an operating margin of11.8 per cent and Ebit margin of 5.2 per cent in the quarter.
Volume grew 5.1 per cent driven by high demand for theVelar from Range Rover and others from the Jaguar stable.
"Higher sales and profits reflect the continued ramp-up of new models such as the Range Rover Velar, Land RoverDiscovery, Jaguar XF Sportbrake, Jaguar F-Pace and, in China,the Jaguar XFL.
However, on a standalone basis Tata Motors stillremained in the red but wit hugely narrowed losses. Whilerevenue jumped 30 per cent to Rs 13,400 crore, operatingprofit soared 189 per cent to Rs 971 crore.
Similarly cost cutting helped the company book anoperating margin of 7.2 per cent, helping it narrow loses toRs 295 crore from Rs 631 crore a year ago.
The domestic numbers were boosted by overall salesimprovement, especially the passenger car business which hadfor long been struggling. While it saw the best sales numbersfor cars since November 2012, CV sales was the best since June2014, helping it shore up market pie by 400 bps to 45 percent.
And the management sounded quite pleased with thenumbers and attributed them to "the successful implementationof the turnaround plan that was under implementation since thepast year or so.
"I am happy to tell you that the turnaround plan hasstarted to deliver, thanks to the single-minded focus we'vebeen putting in over the past six-nine months.
"This is the first quarter since the turnaround planhas been fully implemented, and I'm confident, going forwardthe results will only get better," Guenter Butschek, MD & CEO,Tata Motors told reporters.
The turnaround plan includes filling the product gapand customer centric initiatives, which helped it cover almost70 per cent of its addressable market now in the car segment,cost-cutting across all areas, especially in planning andengineering, and resolving by debottlenecking suppliers side,Butschek said.
He said the company outgrew the car segment massivelywith a 22 per cent growth against 8 per cent of the marketwhile the commercial vehicles side saw the MHCVs, ILCVs, SCVsand pick-ups doing well.
On the passenger car said, the JD Power report hadlast month said the Tata Motors was ranked No 2 in customersatisfaction, a position it shared with the market leaderMaruti Suzuki.
On the product side, it launched new products like theTiago, Tigor and the Hexa which all continue to drive salesmomentum and the newly-launched Nexon which has huge waitingperiod now.
Domestic sales, including exports of commercial andpassenger vehicles stood at 152,979 units, a growth of 13.8per cent with an impressive growth across segments-28 per centin MHCVs, 35 per cent in ILCVs, 38 per cent in SCVs and pick-ups. The passenger vehicles grew by 14.4 per cent in thereporting quarter over a year ago.
Mayank Parekh rpt Parekh, head of the passenger carbusiness said the company has huge bookings for its recentlylaunched compact SUV Nexon with a three-month waiting period.
"We are getting 350 bookings per day for the Nexon.
While this is good, I want to bring the waiting period downconsiderably. There're some issues from our vendors which weare resolving on a war footing," Parekh rpt Parekh said,adding the seven-seater SUV Hexa is also doing well witharound 1,500 units a month. The other cars are also doingwell, especially the Tiago rpt Tiago grossing around 8,000units a month.
On JLR side, strong demand for the Velar from theRange Rover stable and other new models like new Discovery ledto higher sales and higher profitability, Ralf Speth, JLRchief executive said.
"Higher sales and profits reflect the continued ramp-up of new models such as the Range Rover Velar, Land RoverDiscovery, Jaguar XF Sportbrake, Jaguar F-Pace and, in China,the Jaguar XFL," he said.
Retail sales were led by the Velar and other newmodels boosting revenue by 11.5 per cent to 6.3 billion poundsand a pre-tax profit of 385 million pounds, up 38 per cent.
Higher sales and profits reflect the continued ramp-upof new models such as the Velar, Land Rover Discovery, JaguarXF Sportbrake, Jaguar F-PACE and, in China, the Jaguar XFL.
JLR, the largest car maker in Britain, invested over 1billion pound in the quarter and for the full year it isexpected to exceed 4 billion pounds. PTI BEN IAS BENNSKNSK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.