Leading motorcycle and three-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto on Wednesday reported 53 per cent fall in its standalone profit for the quarter ended June at Rs 528 crore as against Rs 1,126 crore reported in the same quarter last fiscal.
"Q1 / FY21 has been an extremely challenging quarter due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdown and other containment / precautionary measures have resulted in disrupted supply lines and a sharp decline in overall demand," said the Pune based automaker.
Revenue from operations fell 60 per cent to Rs 3,079 crore in Q1 FY21 from Rs 7,756 crore in Q1 FY20 as total sales fell from 1,247,174 units in Q1 of FY 20 to 443,103 units in Q1 of this fiscal.
"Sales in the domestic motorcycle market was Nil for the entire month of April and impacted for a large part of May 2020. The month of June 2020 witnessed a decent recovery and performance of Bajaj Auto was better than the industry," the Co said.
Due to fall in revenue, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for Bajaj dropped to Rs 441 crore from Rs 1,250 crore in the same period despite strict cost control measures.
Bajaj said impact of this pandemic was experienced in India and in countries across the globe that they export to. "While we have restarted operations, sporadic localised lockdowns are disrupting the supply chain and impacting the ability of the business to return towards normalcy."
During the quarter, the automaker Improved its overall share in the domestic motorcycle market to 20.7 per cent as against 18.5 per cent in FY20. In the Sports segment, Bajaj Auto said it continues to be a market leader.
"We sold over 69,000 units in this segment. Market share in this segment was 59.0% as against 44.7% in FY20," the Co said.
In the commercial vehicle segment, Bajaj said domestic market of was severely impacted due to the pandemic. "Industry recorded a decline of 91%. Being a market leader, Bajaj Auto was impacted the most," it said.
During the period, its overall export by volume recorded a decline of 54 per cent to 2,51,000 units. "By regions, Africa recorded a decline of 50%, SAME recorded a decline of 63%, LATAM recorded a decline of 63% and ASEAN recorded a decline of 67%," it said.