TATA MOTORS PROFIT FALLS 50% ON WEAK JLR SALES

MUMBAI: Tata Motors Ltd’s March quarter profit fell by half from a year ago as vehicle sales declined at its British unit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Automotive Plc and its Indian operation reported a loss.

Net profit, including those of its units, fell to ₹2,175.16 crore for the three months ended 31 March from ₹4,336.43 crore in the same period a year earlier. Sales rose 15.9% to ₹91,279.09 crore from ₹78,746.61 crore a year ago.

A Bloomberg poll of 16 analysts had estimated a quarterly profit at ₹3,748 crore on sales of ₹88,196 crore. Profit was hit by a weak performance by JLR— which accounts for over 80% of Tata Motors’ profit—in addition to a loss at the domestic unit.

JLR posted a 3.8% year-onyear decline in sales to 172,709 units. Sales in Europe, including the UK, continued to decline, while sales growth in China slowed to 11%. The American market sprang a surprise with a 3.48% rise in sales to 36,325 units during the quarter.

JLR saw a “tough and challenging” year, with sales weighed down by factors such as Brexit, adverse taxation on diesel cars in the UK and Europe, and market cyclicality in the US and UK, Ralf Speth, CEO at the luxury carmaker, said at a press conference after the results announcement.

For the coming fiscal, JLR will spend close to £4.5 billion on the development of new vehicles and next-gen technologies, as it aims to have an electric variant for each model by 2020.