Tata Motors , India’s biggest automaker by sales revenue, on Monday posted a 47.4 per cent fall in profit to ₹1,117.48 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, from ₹2,125.24 crore in the year-ago period.
Muted sales in India and trouble with its Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) unit continued to impact the company’s performance during the quarter. However, the cost-cutting measures announced earlier in FY19 seem to be working, as the company posted a profit in Q4 against a ₹26,992-crore loss in Q3. Total revenue from operations in Q4 fell 4.05 per cent to ₹86,422 crore (₹89,929 crore).
“Our domestic business delivered a resilient performance in the face of challenging market conditions. We have continued to step up our pace of innovation, improved our market shares as well as our profitability. The ‘Turnaround 2.0’ strategy is delivering well, and I am confident that the business is getting the building blocks in place for long-term success,” said N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Motors.
“At JLR, we continue to face challenges in China, which we are addressing on priority,” he added.
The Q4 net profit for JLR was at £119 million but on a full year basis, the loss was at £3.6 billion.
New models
The company said in a statement that during the year, there was encouraging demand for new models including the Jaguar E-PACE sporty compact SUV, the Range Rover Velar mid-size SUV, the refreshed Range Rover and Range Rover Sport (including plug-in hybrid options) and the all-new electric Jaguar I-PACE.
“China has been a tough market for us and as far as the overall market itself is concerned, it has now declined almost about 15 per cent...However, the premium cars continue to do well, a growth of about 2-3 per cent growth is what we have seen in the segment,” said PB Balaji, Tata Motors CFO. “However, we have had a challenging situation because we have taken certain corrective action in terms of moving the strategy from a push to a pull one.”
Mayank Pareek, President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, said that while there has been an overall slowdown in the market, the company has been outperforming the market by four-five times for the past 36 months. The rural sector still shows good growth for the company, he added.