Bosch reports 20% dip in Q3 net at Rs 111 cr

The company witnessed a prolonged employee strike during the second and third quarters of this fiscal, which ended on Dec 8, 2014

Bosch Ltd, a supplier of automotive components and technologies to original equipment manufacturers, announced a 20 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 111 crore for the quarter ended December, compared with Rs 139 crore a year ago.

“The decline was on account of a one-time organisational restructuring of costs, consequent to recent wage settlement negotiations and associate retirement benefit costs due to a sharp decline in discounting rates in India,” said Steffen Berns, managing director. The amount incurred on this was Rs 28 crore. The net sales rose 13 per cent to Rs 2,331 crore against Rs 2,062 crore a year ago. The operating profit went up 14.6 per cent to Rs 102 crore against Rs 89 crore a year ago.

“Bosch has registered good growth in the quarter, above the growth of the country’s automotive market,” Berns said.

The board of directors in a meeting on June 5, 2014, had approved a change in its financial year, to commence from April 1 and end on March 31 the following year. Consequently, the current financial period will be for 15 months, from January 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015.

During the earlier quarter, employees at the factory here had commenced a strike with effect from September 16, 2014, called off on December 8.

Revenue from the automotive segment went up 14 per cent to Rs 2,139 crore from Rs 1,878 crore in the same quarter a year before.

The company's shares opened at Rs 25,427 on Friday morning and hit a high of Rs 26,583.90 a share, prior to the announcement of results. These closed the day 1.8 per cent lower at Rs 24,905.20 a share.