 "Ashok Leyland truck AVTR 3120")
Hinduja Group’s flagship company Ashok Leyland on Monday posted over a 73 per cent jump in net profit for the third quarter of the financial year 2023-24 to Rs 608.85 crore, compared to Rs 351.21 crore during the October to December quarter of the financial year, driven by a high volume in commercial vehicles.
During the quarter under review, the company also saw its revenue up by 7 per cent to Rs 11,092 crore as against Rs 10,399.74 crore during the third quarter of 2022-23. The reported Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (Ebitda) of Rs 1,114 crore in Q3 FY24 against Rs 797 crore a year ago.
The company achieved a historic high commercial vehicle volume of 1,38,416 units in the first nine months of the fiscal year. Despite global headwinds, it achieved an export volume of 3,128 units in Q3 FY24 against 2,936 units in the same period last year, registering a growth of 6.5 per cent. The company’s debt was seen at Rs 1,747 crore at the end of Q3 FY24 with debt-equity at 0.2 times as compared to 0.3 times at the end of the previous quarter.
In a statement, Ashok Leyland said that an investment of Rs 662 crore was made during the quarter into Optare PLC / Switch, as prospects of electric light commercial vehicles and eBuses continue to strengthen.
“The present favourable market conditions are expected to hold in the foreseeable future. The steady progress we are making in sales volume and profitability is backed by products that deliver superior performance and customer value coupled with robust customer engagement across segments. A suite of new products in conventional and alternate propulsion technologies is slated for introduction progressively to consolidate our gains in the domestic market and facilitate our forays in overseas markets,” said Dheeraj Hinduja, Executive Chairman, Ashok Leyland.
The company continued to see strong demand for its products both in the Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles (MHCV) and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) segments, holding its position as the lead manufacturer of buses in the country. During the quarter the company garnered orders for more than 3,800 buses from State Transport Undertakings. In the recently held Bharat Mobility Global Expo at New Delhi, the company commenced.
“We have been able to achieve significant improvement in our Net Profits. The current quarter saw the confluence of good volumes, better price realisation, and higher cost savings, thus helping us achieve better profitability. Other businesses such as After-market, Power Solutions, and Defence also continue to strongly contribute to our top line and margins. On the back of new differentiated products, deeper focus on cost optimisation, and with continued discipline on pricing, we shall relentlessly pursue improvement in profitability. We remain confident and optimistic about the growth of the CV industry in the medium and long term as macroeconomic factors continue to be favourable,” said Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ashok Leyland.
