Maruti expects sales revenue to grow 25%

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India today said it is expecting sales revenue to grow by over 25 % to nearly Rs 38,000 crore in the current financial year on the back of robust sales.

The company, however, sees vehicles sales growth rate to slow down to 12-14 % during 2011-12 financial year as against 27 % it has so far achieved in this fiscal.

"The demand has been very good so far. In the first three quarters, our income grew very strongly. For this quarter, we will have to see February and March, but it will be more or less the same. Our sales revenue will obviously grow over 25 % this fiscal," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chief Financial Officer Ajay Seth told PTI.

MSI had reported a total revenue of Rs 30,119.77 crore for 2009-10. In the first nine months of this fiscal, it posted a jump of 26.33 % in its revenue to Rs 27,310.35 crore from Rs 21,617.65 crore in the year-ago period.

When asked about the company's expectation from 2011-12, Seth said: "The industry has projected a volume growth of 12-14 % in passenger vehicles segment. Our performance will be in-line with that of the industry."

The sales of passenger vehicles by the company in the April-December period has grown by 26.91 % to 9,27,665 units as against 7,30,943 units.

He, however, declined to give any projection for MSI's revenue growth during the next fiscal.

"We will have to consider some factors in next fiscal such as a possible excise duty hike in the Budget, liquidity condition, interest rates' movements and rising commodity prices," he added.

Seth said commodity prices are still very high and are putting pressure on margins.

At present, MSI, which is 54.2 % owned by Suzuki, has an annual capacity of 8.5 lakh units at its Gurgaon plant, while Manesar can produce 3.5 lakh units annually.

The company had announced an investment of over Rs 3,625 crore to set up two new plants with 2.5 lakh annual capacities each inside the Manesar facility.

The carmaker had said it ramped up production by about 10 % to over 1.1 lakh units every month from October last year, taking its total annual output to about 14 lakh units in 2011-12.