Q3 earnings: Maruti Suzuki shines, Tata Motors’ PAT declines by 22 per cent
MUMBAI: Two of India’s largest automakers – Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) and Tata Motors - reported their December quarterly earnings on Wednesday. While MSIL reported a healthy profit growth, Tata Motors, which also owns the luxury British brand Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), had a challenging quarter.
Tata Motors reported a 22% year-on-year drop in consolidated net profit to Rs 5,451 crore in Q3FY25, missing analyst estimates. While revenue from operations grew 2.7% on-year to Rs 113,575 crore, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) margins fell 60 basis points year-on-year to 13.7%.
“We expect underlying domestic demand to improve gradually on account of infrastructure spending, a slew of exciting product launches and stable interest rates. While JLR wholesales are expected to improve further in Q4 FY25, we remain watchful on the overall demand situation, particularly in China,” said Tata Motors in a statement.
PB Balaji, Group Chief Financial Officer, Tata Motors stated that the fundamentals of the business are strong and therefore despite external challenges they are confident of delivering another strong performance this year.
On a sequential basis, earnings saw improvement. The profit jumped 63% from Rs 3,343 crore posted in the second quarter of FY25.
Segment-wise, CV revenues were down 8.4% YoY to Rs 18,400 crore. Domestic PV volumes for the quarter were steady at 1,40,000 units, while revenues in Q3FY25 were down 4.3% YoY at Rs 12,400 crore. Tata Motors said that JLR delivered a healthy performance in Q3FY25 with record Q3 revenue and the highest EBIT margin in a decade, and a ninth successive profitable quarter. Revenue for the quarter was £7.5 billion, up 1.5% YoY. Profit before tax for JLR was £523 million, down from £627 million a year ago.
The country’s largest carmaker - Maruti Suzuki’s - standalone profit rose 12.6% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 3,525 crore in Q3FY25, beating most estimates. The company’s revenue rose 15.6 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 38,492.1 crore in Q3FY25. MSIL sold a total of 566,213 vehicles during the quarter. Sales in the domestic market were 466,993 units. The company exported 99,220 units, the highest ever in any quarter.
On the operational front, the EBITDA margin for the carmaker came in slightly lower at 11.6%, compared to 11.7% in Q3 FY24. MSIL stated that higher sales promotion and advertisement expenses, adverse foreign exchange variation and lower non-operating income were the main negatives in the reported quarter.