Wheels India Q4 profit up by 8.4% to Rs 18 cr

Revenues for the fourth quarter of FY17 were up 9.7% to Rs 557 crore

TVS Group Company Wheels India Ltd., a leading manufacturer of steel wheels, has registered an 8.4 per cent growth in profit to Rs 18.40 crore, during the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2017, from Rs 16.97 crore during the same quarter a year ago.

Revenues for the fourth quarter of FY17 were up 9.7 per cent to Rs 557.49 crore from Rs 508.04 crore a year ago.

Over 50 per cent of Wheels India's revenues come from automotive wheels for trucks and cars, with the rest coming from wheels for agricultural tractors and construction equipment, air suspension systems and energy-equipment parts.

The company has manufacturing plants at Padi, Pune, Rampur, Bawal, Sriperambudur and Pantnagar, with a combined overall annual capacity of 16 million wheels.

Srivats Ram, managing director, Wheels India said, "It has been a satisfying year of growth and profits. The air suspension business and the windmill business saw good growth in FY17. Other than the non-wheel business, there was reasonable growth in the domestic agricultural tractor sector in FY17."

The company has also expanded its presence in the non-wheels segment with the business now contributing over 15 per cent of the business and this is likely to increase in the coming years. Over 50 per cent of the revenue growth in Fiscal 2017 came from the non-wheels business.

On the outlook for the year, Ram said that this year, the company expect reasonable growth in the car, agricultural tractor and construction equipment segments in India.

The growth in exports would be driven by forged aluminum wheels where company are increasing capacity during the year. "We expect the CV segment to be sluggish this year given the "pre-buy" prior to the BS IV changeover," said Ram.