Johnson Controls-Hitachi Q4 net profit jumps 90 pc to Rs 25cr

Air conditioner maker Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning (JCHAC) India today reported a 89.74 per cent jump in standalone net profit to Rs 25.35 crore for the quarter ended March 31.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 13.36 crore during the same period previous fiscal, JCHAC said in a BSE filing.
JCHAC is a joint venture between Johnson Controls and Hitachi Appliances, in which the former owns 60 per cent.
Revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 578.04 crore, as against Rs 410.39 crore in the year ago period, up 41 per cent.
The company, which currently has a market share of about 12 per cent, plans to increase it to 20 per cent in the next two years.

"We are the third most selling AC brand in India and our target is to take the market share to 20 per cent," JCHAC Global CEO Franz Cerwinka said.

For the entire fiscal, the company reported a net profit of Rs 81.04 crore, compared to 49.97 crore in the 2015-16 fiscal.
On being asked about the impact of the 28 per cent tax rate imposed on air conditioners under the new GST regime, Cerwinka said the impact would be short term and people will slowly get used to the new pricing structure.
The company today also announced the opening of an engineering excellence centre here, in which it will provide technical training to its professionals and will have product range displays.

"We see our initiative in line with the government's Skill India project as the technicians usually lack a formal training or course needed to become a subject matter expert, and with our training centers we are not only enabling them but also improving their quality of life," JCHAC India MD Gurmeet Singh said.
In January 2015, US-based Johnson Control and Hitachi and had entered into an agreement to form a 60:40 joint venture for the global air conditioning business of Hitachi Appliances.