Apollo Tyres Q4 net up 9 pc at Rs 307 cr

Apollo Tyres today posted 9.18 increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 307.48 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31.
The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 281.62 crore during the same period of previous fiscal.
Net sales of the company, however, declined to Rs 3,098.42 crore during the same period compared with Rs 3,211.81 crore in the same period of previous financial year, Apollo Tyres said in a statement.
For the year, the company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 977.60 crore, down 2.73 per cent from Rs 1,005.05 crore in the previous fiscal.

Net sales of the company declined to Rs 12,725.69 crore for the fiscal compared with Rs 13,310.32 crore in 2013-14 fiscal.
"Despite a healthy volume growth in the passenger car tyre segment in Europe and nearly 30 per cent volume growth in the truck-bus radial segment in India, our topline has not grown, primarily due to the South African operations and also because of the depreciation of Euro," said Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman of Apollo Tyres.

"Having said that, the company's effort towards faster market expansion outside India, has resulted in a strong growth of more than 20 per cent in exports," he added.

Kanwar said that the recent increase in import duty of natural rubber from 20 per cent to 25 per cent will be a challenge going forward.
"This change in duty is likely to result in further increase in import of cheap tyres, which can be imported at 10 per cent duty, and will hinder the growth of capacity investments by the domestic tyre industry, in addition to making us uncompetitive," he added.
Meanwhile, the company's board, which met today, recommended final dividend of Rs 2 per share amounting to Rs 1,01.8 crore on shares of Re 1 each for the year, subject to the approval from shareholders.

The board also approved the appointment of Gaurav Kumar as Chief Financial Officer of the company with immediate effect.