Bharat Forge reports Rs 68.6 cr net loss in Q4, sales drop to Rs 1,742 cr

Auto components major Bharat Forge Ltd on Monday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 68.59 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, on account of lower revenue and impairment of its investment in associate firm Tevva Motors Jersey Ltd due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 324.09 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, Bharat Forge said in a regulatory filing.

Its consolidated revenue from operations during the period under review stood at Rs 1,741.92 crore, compared with Rs 2,670.78 crore in the year-ago period, it added.

For the full financial year 2019-20, the company's consolidated net profit stood at Rs 349.25 crore, against Rs 1,032.6 crore in the previous year.

The firm's revenue from operations in 2019-20 was at Rs 8,055.84 crore, against Rs 10,145.73 crore in 2018-19, the company said.

Bharat Forge said it has provided an amount of Rs 89 crore towards impairment of its investment in associate Tevva Motors Jersey Ltd, which is a start-up company for modular electrification systems for medium-duty commercial vehicles.

"Like several other start-ups, Tevva too has been severely affected due to the Covid-19 crisis. While Tevva's technology platform is evolving, its financing and commercial outlook remains uncertain now," the company said.

 

Consequently, the company said it has provided Rs 89 crore in standalone financial results. It has an impact of Rs 47.59 crore in the consolidated financial results after adjusting the losses already considered, it added.

Bharat Forge Ltd Chairman and Managing Director B N Kalyani said, "On the heels of robust growth over the past three years, a routine cyclical correction in CV (commercial vehicle) markets in the US and Europe was forecast for the calendar year 2020. This was further accentuated with the coronavirus-induced lockdowns."

He further said, "The unprecedented events over the past few months and the subsequent lockdown have completely reversed the positive momentum we had started witnessing across some of our key verticals especially in India."

Kalyani said the full-year performance, especially the second half, was impacted by the severe slump across sectors in India and globally.

"All our facilities in India and globally have resumed operations in a phased manner since early May 2020, however, with utilisation at sub-optimal levels," he added.

The company said that from the end of March, its offices and manufacturing facilities were shut down to contain the spread of Covid-19 and maintain the wellbeing of employees and stakeholders, including customers.

These closures expanded and continued into April and May 2020. The duration of the production and supply chain disruptions and their related financial impacts cannot be estimated at this time, it added.

On the outlook, Kalyani said, "The financial year 2020-21 started on a difficult note with the lockdown impacting demand. Automotive production across commercial and passenger vehicles (PVs) globally have been severely impacted. However, we expect the PV business to outperform underlying markets."

The company also expects to see good demand traction in several industrial segments barring the oil and gas sector, he added.

"We are hopeful that sequentially, things will start to improve from the second half of 2020-21, as economies open up and stabilise. Although the current scenario is very different from what we have ever seen before, we are confident that the company will come out from these difficult times stronger than before," Kalyani said.