Tata Motors, which has been facing headwinds in the home market for the past many years, today reported over 3-fold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 5,398.21 crore for the three months to June 30, bailed out yet again by its British marquee subsidiary JLR.
The Q1, 2014-15 profit is the highest for the company in as many as nine quarters and "way ahead" of some estimates. The company had posted Rs 1,726 crore profit in the April-June quarter of last fiscal, 2013-14.
Strong JLR sales helped boost the company's overall margins by a massive 550 bps to 20.3 per cent from 15.8 per cent a year ago, while margins at the domestic operations fell to minus 2.8 per cent from 2.3 per cent.
Revenue from JLR jumped 54 per cent to Rs 54,425.97 crore. On the other hand, revenue from Tata and other brand vehicles and financing during the quarter were at Rs 9,898.38 crore, down 11.33 per cent.
JLR paid 150 million pounds dividend to the parent during the quarter. The domestic unit or the parent, has nearly halved net profit to Rs 394 crore, from Rs 703 crore a year ago, as sales have been on the decline for many quarters.
Consolidated net revenue jumped over 38 per cent to Rs 64,683 crore, thanks to the robust sales by JLR, which Tata Motors had bought in 2008 as a sick company.
"The continuing weak operating and economic environment in the domestic business, was more than offset by strong demand for new products, growth in volumes, richer product mix and richer geographic mix at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)," group chief financial officer C Ramakrishnan told reporters.
The market lapped up the numbers as it is way above estimates. Tata Motors shares closed at Rs 447.40 apiece, up 3.33 per cent, on the BSE, whose 30-share benchmark 0.75 per cent.
"Tata Motors numbers are way ahead of our estimates of Rs 3,500 crore," said Rahul Shah of Motilal Oswal Securities.
On a standalone basis, Tata Motors India sales plunged 28.3 per cent to 1,10,612 units, pulling down revenues to Rs 7,705 crore from Rs 9,105 crore, Ramakrishnan said.
