Exide Q1 falls 3.5 per cent to Rs 189 crore

Battery maker Exide Industries today reported a decline of 3.5 per cent in first quarter ending June 17' profit to Rs 189 crore compared to the corresponding period last year despite higher sales.
The company earned a revenue of Rs 2376.36 crore during the quarter under review as against a sales of Rs 2264.9 crore in the same period of 2016-17.
Last year during this period the company had earned a profit of Rs 196.05 crore.
The company said its automotive and motorcycle business grew but home UPS remained subdued during the quarter.
"Growth in infrastructure batteries have been encouraging but high lead prices remained a concern, company MD & CEO G Chatterjee said.

While, during the day at the sidelines of AGM the company said it was eyeing at increasing market share post implementation of Goods and Services Tax( GST).

"As a result of GST implementation, it is almost inevitable that everyone will have to pay taxes. As a result of which organised sector will get substantial share out of the unorganised sector," Chatterjee said.
He said organised market comprises 65 -70 per cent of battery market while unorganised players have a share of 30-35 per cent.
The replacement battery market size will be close to 20 million a year including organised and unorganised.

The company has Dynex brand to counter the unorganised market.
The company was eyeing at e-Rickshaw market which will turn out to be much larger than automotive.
"Also the battery size is 10 times than in car battery. So each Toto (e-Rickshaw) will give you 30 times than that of a car. There is no government intervention here but this has spontaneously gone up because people see value in it. So this market will definitely erupt," Chatterjee said.