Will miss 4 mn units sales target this fiscal: Bajaj

Baja Auto today said it will miss the target of selling a total 4 million vehicle units in this fiscal due to shortfall in domestic sales, but maintained that its profitability will still be higher.

"When we set the target of selling four million units this fiscal, we knew it was a very challenging one. Now, we feel we will end this fiscal with about 3.85 million units," Bajaj Auto President Finance Kevin D'sa told PTI.

Stating that the missing of the target is mainly due to shortfall in domestic sales, he said exports will, however, overshoot target.

"While setting the 4 million units target, we had stated that exports will be 1 million units, but we will be doing 1.2 million this fiscal," he said, adding the missing of target will not affect profitability.

"In terms of profitability, with 3.85 million units we will exceed the internal profitability target that we set, while projecting a sales of 4 million units," D'sa said.

During the third quarter ended December, the company posted 40.4 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 667.11 crore over Rs 475.14 crore in the same period last fiscal.

In the first quarter of this fiscal, the company had sold 9,28,000 units, followed by one million units in Q2, while in Q3 it sold a total of 9,46,850 units.

On the production front, he said by this fiscal-end, the company will reach a capacity of 5 million units, of which 4.5 million will be two-wheelers and rest three wheelers.

Commenting on the outlook for the next fiscal, D'sa said overall the firm is looking at 20 per cent sales growth, as against an industry growth expected to be 14-15 per cent.

"By April, we will launch a new Discover (model) and two more models will be launched at around Diwali. On the whole 2011-12 should be pretty bright," he said.