MNC arms outperform parents in net sales

The Indian subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs) have shown a better growth pace than their parent companies, posting a net sales growth of 22.10 per cent in the financial year ended December 2006. The parent companies registered a net sales growth of 9.75 per cent.

The parent companies, however, performed well on the profitability front, posting 30.93 per cent net profit growth compared to 22.6 per cent by their Indian subsidiaries.

Bloomberg's financial data source shows the subsidiaries performed well in the capital goods sector while the parent companies in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. However, the subsidiaries have around one per cent, share in both sales and profit of their parent firms.

With a faster net profit growth than their Indian subsidiaries, the parent firms have clocked net profit margins of 11.49 per cent in 2006, up from 9.63 per cent in 2005. Indian firms, however, recorded a marginal improvement in net margins from 10.23 per cent in 2005 and 10.28 per cent in 2006.

Of the 30 firms studied, eleven domestic firms have recorded net margins of over 10 per cent each while nine parent firms have achieved net margins of over 10 per cent each.

Pfizer Inc posted net margins of 40 per cent against 17.06 per cent in 2005. Its subsidiary Pfizer India recorded net margins of 15.20 per cent (10.8 per cent).

The parent company Atlas Copco outperformed its Indian subsidiary by posting net margins of 30.4 per cent (12.44 per cent previous year) which is three times higher than the net margins of its Indian subsidiary which posted 9.71 per cent.

Hindustan Lever, though recorded higher margins than its parent Unilever. Its net margins increased by 0.75 basis points to 12.72 per cent while Unilever reported 248 basis points increase in margins at 11.97 per cent.

Of the 30 multinational firms studied, parent company Goodyear reported net loss of $330 million in 2006 compared with net profit of $228 million in 2005, while its Indian subsidiary Goodyear India did well by a net profit growth of 267 per cent.

The domestic white goods firm Whirlpool India remained in the red with a net loss of Rs 14.50 crore (previous year net loss of Rs 37.41 crore), while Whirlpool Corporation has posted a marginal growth of 2.61 per cent in net profit on a sales growth of 26.3 per cent.