Maruti Suzuki profit dips 9.4% to ₹1,166.1 crore in March quarter

NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd—the country’s largest carmaker—reported a 9.4% year-onyear decrease in net profit to ₹1,166.1 crore for quarter ending March 31, owing to substantial jump in input costs due to increase in prices of commodities like steel, copper and some precious metals.

The other income for the quarter also dropped sharply by 89.8% due to mark to market losses incurred on certain investments, further impacting its bottom-line.

The company posted a net profit of ₹1,291.7 crore in the corresponding period as sales took a hit due to economic slowdown and transition to new safety and emission norms.

The carmaker reported a 32% y-o-y increase in net sales to ₹24,024 crore on the back of 27.8% jump in total vehicle sales to 4,92,235 units.

Sequentially, sale of vehicles decreased marginally by 0.7% from the December quarter.

As a result of the double digit increase in vehicle sales, the company managed to beat the revenue estimates of Bloomberg, pegged at ₹23,919 crore, but missed the net profit estimate of ₹1.699.3 crore.

The growth in revenue and operating profit though came on the low base of FY20 when vehicle sales fell due to economic slowdown and transition to new safety and emission norms.

According to RC Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki, production schedule of the company has not been impacted by the second wave, and it is planning to maintain the current production level to increase inventory which is quite low at the moment and meet demand on ground. “Situation in this year is not like last year since only three states have declared partial lockdown and they also exempted manufacturing industries to continue operations. The semiconductor issue is not yet over at all and will continue for some time. The net result has been that we have been able to continue with full production.