M&M Q4 net up 20% to Rs 725 crore; eyes more UV market share

Homegrown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) today reported a 19.93 per cent increase in standalone profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 725.16 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2017.
The company had posted a PAT of Rs 604.63 crore during the same period a year ago.
Total income from operations rose 4.04 per cent to Rs 12,319.64 crore from Rs 11,840.47 crore in the same period a year ago.
The company's focus will be to increase its market share in the utility segment with one brand new vehicle and some refurbished ones, M&M Managing Director Pawan Goenka said.

Besides, the company plans to spend Rs 12,000 crore over the next three years, a larger chunk of which will go into capacity expansion and product development.
"We are not happy with the 30 per cent market share we have in the UV (utility vehicle) segment; we would have rather liked it to be at least a couple of percentage points more.

"Being the market leader we are in the UV segment, its not possible to hold on the high market shares we held previously. The new products have not done as well as we had expected," Goenka said.
The company has a line up of UVs in the market today, he said, adding one brand new vehicle will be launched during the year besides 2-3 refurbished ones.

He said the recent launches (TUV and KUV) have picked up momentum after a slow start.
The company has lined up Rs 600-800 crore investments for the electric vehicle (EV) business unit in addition to about Rs 400 crore it has already put in the project.
"We are investing in advance for capacity (expansion of e-vehicles). We have right now about 400 (units) per month. We are going up to 1000 per month in six months or so, then we are going up to 5,000 per month in two years (time).
He said M&M continues to remain optimistic about e- vehicles in India. "Perhaps the time to cash in the investment has come now. It is, therefore, important to increase the capacity to supply the kind of numbers that might come in."

In the last six months, the government has taken a very "serious" note on the need for the EVs in the country, he added.
On the unsold BS-III vehicles, he said the company will convert all 13,000 BS-III vehicles into BS-1V or export them.
M&M took a hit of Rs 171 crore on account of the Supreme Court's ban on BS-III vehicle sales from April 1.
During Q4, vehicle sales remained flat at 1,30,778 units. It sold 46,583 tractor units during the period under review, up 13.3 per cent from the same period a year ago, the company said.
For the fiscal 2016-17, the company posted a standalone net profit of Rs 3,955.65 crore, up 23.43 per cent from Rs 3,204.57 crore in the previous year.

Total income rose to Rs 48,438.53 crore from Rs 44,488.83 crore in 2015-16.
During the quarter, the company exported 10,831 units, of which 7,269 were vehicles and 3,562 tractors.
"Roughly we think the figure for both capex and investment put together should be Rs 12,000 crore," M&M group CFO V S Parthasarathy said.
Of this, Rs 2,500 crore will be towards capex and another Rs 1,500 crore on investments, on an average, annually, he said.
Commenting on the numbers, the company said the outlook for 2017-18 is much more robust with a favourable domestic and global backdrop.
"Moreover, the ongoing remonetisation process and lagged effect of past rate cuts along with a further reduction in banks' lending rates will aid discretionary consumer spending and growth recovery," it said.

Focused expenditure, especially on the rural economy and affordable housing, the GST rollout and steps to attract higher foreign direct investment (FDI) will also be supportive of growth, the auto major added.
"Importantly, notwithstanding initial challenges, the GST implementation entails sustained positive gains for the economy in the long term," M&M said.
The Mumbai-based company's board, which met today, has recommended a dividend of Rs 13 per equity share of the face value of Rs 5 each.
Shares of the company ended 0.82 per cent up at Rs 1,362 on the BSE.