Bajaj Auto Q4 profit rises 34.57%, beats estimates
Bajaj Auto Ltd on Friday reported a 34.67% jump in March quarter net profit—continuing the upward trend that began in the December quarter—after a downturn that lasted four consecutive quarters up to September on the back of higher motorcycle and threewheeler sales in domestic and overseas markets.
Net profit for the maker of Pulsar and Discover motorcycles rose to ₹1,079.87 crore in the three months ended March 31 from ₹801.82 crore a year ago, the company said in a stock exchange statement.
Net sales rose 29.89% to ₹6,650.81 crore from ₹5,120.54 crore a year earlier.
The Pune-based automaker was expected to post a profit of ₹1,047.4 crore on net sales of ₹6,645.3 crore, according to a Bloomberg survey of 27 analysts.
Sales for this fiscal year are not comparable to the previous year’s earnings because they are disclosed net of the goods and services tax introduced in July, Bajaj Auto said in the statement.
Total sales during the quarter rose 32.72% to 1,045,378 units, with motorcycle volumes (including exports) advancing by 22.16% to 856,389 units over a year ago, posting growth upwards of 20% in both, domestic and overseas markets. Total three-wheeler sales jumped 118.17 % to 188,612 units, led by the domestic market.
MUMBAI:
Fujifilm Holdings Corp. said it plans to challenge Xerox Corp.’s termination of a $6.1 billion takeover by the Japanese company, signalling that tensions between the joint venture partners won’t be coming to an end soon.
Fujifilm plans to file a lawsuit as soon as possible, president Kenji Sukeno said Friday in his first public comments days after the American office products company called off the deal in a settlement with activist shareholders Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason. Still, Fujifilm would also consider any new offer from Xerox, Sukeno said.
“The contract that ties the two companies together is still valid,” Sukeno said at a briefing in Tokyo to announce the company’s financial results. “We will push for the legality of it. There was a legal contract that everyone agreed on, and after that a few shareholders wanted to put a stop to it.”
Fujifilm this week disputed Xerox’s “unilateral decision” to scrap a plan for the Japanese company to take control of the once-iconic American office equipment supplier. Icahn and Deason, two of the biggest shareholders who argued the deal undervalued Xerox, succeeded in their bid to stymie the transaction and push out the American company’s chief executive officer. Sukeno said he wants to explain to Xerox shareholders that the merger with Fujifilm is the only option for the American company to grow and have a future.
TOKYO: