Maruti wins St over with surprise 80% rise in Q4 net

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, today hit a 52-week high on the bourses after it reported a better-than expected net profit of Rs 1150 crore, a 76.9 percent rise against the year-ago figure, for the fourth quarter of financial year 2012-2013. Analysts had estimated a net profit of Rs 703 crore.

Shares of Maruti are up around 5 percent today at Rs 1655 after it reported its earnings for the fourth quarter.

[caption id=“attachment_730653” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reuters[/caption]

The company has attributed the rise in profit to higher sales of new models. Also benefiting from a sharp decline in the value of the yen as imports from Japan count for 20 percent of its costs, Maruti beat market estimates.

More from Business

Hyundai India’s Rs 27,870 crore IPO oversubscribed by 2.28X, largely driven by institutional investors How Indian fintech startups are driving Malaysia’s UPI-like digital payments revolution

“The increase in net profit during the quarter was on account of higher sales of new models such as Ertiga, DZire and Swift, cost reduction and localization efforts and the benefit of a favourable exchange rate,” the company said in a statement.

Net sales for the fourth quarter increased to Rs 13,056 crore, up 13.62 percent from Rs 11,490 crore in the same period last fiscal.

The management, however, cautioned that FY13 was a difficult year for passenger vehicles even though its market share rose 100 basis points to 39 percent, while diesel vehicle shares rose 58 percent.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

Chennai Ranks #1 in Challan Checks: ACKO Insights for Smarter Car and Two Wheeler Insurance Decisions

Tata Harrier EV vs Mahindra XEV 9e: Design and road presence compared

The Maruti board has also approved the amalgamation of its seven units.

Sounding positive on the long-term opportunity in India, it said the next phase of expansion will be in Gujarat in 2015-16.

MPVs and sports-utility vehicles were the only segments to see sales soar last year, helped by a trend towards more bulky cars for India’s often poorly maintained and traffic-clogged roads, and generous government subsidies on diesel, the segments’ primary fuel.