Tata Motors Q4 net profit triples on strong JLR sales

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Tata Motors Ltd , India's top automaker by revenue, posted a three-fold rise in quarterly net profit, lifted by strong sales at its luxury unit Jaguar Land Rover and higher demand for its trucks as the domestic economy recovers.

Profit was helped by a one-time gain of 5.55 billion rupees ($83 million) in an insurance payment for damage caused to Jaguar Land Rover cars in an explosion at Tianjin port in China last year.

Consolidated net profit for the three months ended March 31 beat analyst estimates, rising to 51.7 billion rupees ($771 million) compared with 17.17 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter.

 

Analysts on average expected Tata Motors to post a profit of 34.36 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Net sales rose 19 percent to 799.3 billion rupees.

Operating margin at Jaguar Land Rover for the quarter fell to 16.2 percent from 17.4 percent a year earlier. ($1 = 67.1632 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; editing by Adrian Croft)