Ashok Leyland net falls

Total income from operations stood at Rs 3,728.46 cr during the quarter

Ashok Leyland Ltd has posted a decrease of 42% in net profit at Rs 150.03 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013, as against Rs 258.73 crore for the same period of previous fiscal year.

Vinod K Dasari, managing director, Ashok Leyland said the drop was mainly due to fall in volumes, which is reflection of overall market sluggishness.

The total income from operations stood at Rs 3,728.46 crore during the quarter compared to Rs 4,329.52 crore for the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal, a decrease of 13.88%.

During the fourth quarter, the company reported 25% in sales (excluding Dost) to 23,602 units from 30,776 units.

"This was in line with the industry, which reported overall drop of 33-34% drop," said Dasari.

However, he added that the company gained a market share of 3% while the Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicle (M&HCV) segment volumes fell by 25%. It has increased its market share to 26.5% in the domestic M&HCV space with a volume of 70,917 vehicles. Exports were lower at 8,778 units compared to the previous fiscal, largely owing to losses in key SAARC markets.

The Spare Parts and Power Solutions businesses registered a growth of 31% and 35% respectively. The LCV product Dost registered sales of a volume of 34,917 vehicles and a network of 100 customer touch points in the 12 markets it has been introduced so far.

On the outlook, he said first half will be 10% lower than last year and second half we expect 20% growth.

New Products

Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland lined up four launches, which include a product in A Truck 8-15 tonnes and N Truck which will be in 16-49 tonne GVW.

Vinod K Dasari, managing director, Ashok Leyland said that the company has lined up four big launches during the current fiscal. This includes A Truck which will be named as "Boss" (8-15 tonne) and N Truck which will be in 16-49 tonne GVW.

The A Truck is expected to be launched in July and N Truck is expected to be launched in October.

These products will be manufactured at company's Pantnagar facility and these trucks will have company's Czech Republic subsidiary Avia's Cabin.

The company is also planning to launch new Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) product including Stile, which will be passenger vehicle in July, and Partner in the last quarter of the current fiscal, a Light Commercial Vehicle.

"We intend to launch a new range of ICV products in July and the heavy truck cab in October. Our JV with Nissan is also planning a slew of new products that will expand our range in the LCV sector,” he said.