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Led by higher sales, the country's largest passenger car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) on Wednesday reported standalone net profit of ₹1,744 crore for the third quarter ended December 31 up 48 per cent against ₹1,183 crore in the same period last year.
“Growth in sales, increase in share of the company’s higher segment models, higher non-operating income and material cost reduction initiatives contributed to profit,” the company said.
However, this was partially offset by adverse foreign exchange movement and increase in commodity prices, it said.
Total income from operations also rose to ₹19,173 crore during the October-December quarter, up 13 per cent as compared with ₹16,958 crore in the same period in 2015. EPS stood at ₹57.75 against ₹39.16.
The company sold a total of 3,87,251 vehicles in the third quarter, a growth of 3.5 per cent compared with 3,74,182 units over the same period in the previous year.
However, exports reduced to 30,748 units in the quarter in review compared with 31,187 units in October-December 2015.
Addressing analysts on a conference call, Ajay Seth, Chief Financial Officer, MSIL, said the company’s compact SUV Vitara Brezza has helped it in increasing market share in utility vehicle segment to 28 per cent during the quarter from 18 per cent in the year-ago period.
On the impact of demonetisation on sales, the company officials said immediately after it was announced in November there was drop in enquiry and bookings, but it has since recovered gradually through December and January.
The company said while there has been an increase in first time buyers and government employees, there has been a decrease in purchases from small time traders or businessmen.
Having said that, they also said it would be clearer only after the end of January to understand by when the situation would return to normalcy.
On the discount front, Seth said that although it is generally high in the October-December quarter, this fiscal it was at an average of ₹19,040 across models against ₹21,997 in the same quarter previous year.
The company’s scrip closed at ₹5,796.80 on the BSE on Wednesday, up 1 per cent from the previous close.
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