Tata Motors in slow lane; Q4 net down 16.79% to Rs 4,336crore

Tata Motors today reported a 16.79 per cent dip in the March quarter net at Rs 4,336.43 crore on a slowdown in domestic business, and terming FY17 as a year of "homemade misses", promised to work on execution now on.
The Tata Group company reported a 35 per cent dip in 2016-17 post tax profit at Rs 7,454 crore on a consolidated level. The total revenues moved up to Rs 15,206 crore in Q4 from the year ago's Rs 14,258 crore on a standalone basis.
Robust performance of its British subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) helped the numbers, but currency volatilities, which saw the rupee appreciating against the pound, had some adverse impact on the bottomline.

The company said the currency fluctuations had a Rs 27,686 crore impact on consolidated revenue for the year, which ended lower by around Rs 3,000 crore at Rs 2.75 lakh crore.
The top automaker did well on the passenger vehicles front domestically, notching up a 23 per cent growth on launch of new models as against the industry's 9 per cent, but a combination of factors hurt its mainstay of commercial vehicles where it could report only a one per cent increase.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Guenter Butschek sought to blame the regulatory environment for the lacklustre CV sales.

"The regulatory environment, eg demonetisation, delay in roll-out of GST and the recent shock on BSIII to BSIV transition have been unexpected and unprecedented movements," he told reporters.

While its group chief financial officer C Ramakrishnan termed it as a "disappointing" set of numbers, Butschek conceded the company has not lived up to expectations and it was a year of "homemade misses".
Asked to elaborate, he said the problem started with missing product new launch deadlines which resulted in loss of volumes.
"It would be fair to say that FY 16/17 was about getting our strategic direction right; now that we've all our plans in place, it is time to deliver and focus on execution," he said.

The company has completed an organisational restructuring exercise domestically, which has seen around 1,500 job cuts at the managerial level, he said.
JLR reported a 13 per cent jump in retail sales and a 10.1 per cent increase in revenues during the reporting quarter, its chief executive Ralf Speth said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the future.
The marquee brand will be investing GBP 4 billion during the current fiscal, he said, adding one plant each is coming up in Austria and Slovakia.
Speaking of the impact of the recent regulatory moves, a senior official said it could not sell 15,000 BS-III vehicles because of the Supreme Court ruling on such vehicles.

Ramakrishnan said it will be focusing on capital conservation and monetisation of non-core assets in the future, but did not divulge the specifics.
He said the company hopes the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to be favourable for the sector and along with the good monsoon predicted by the Met department, support the lagging commercial vehicle sales during the fiscal 2017-18.
The company scrip gained 0.38 per cent to close at Rs 450.10 a piece on the BSE, whose benchmark index Sensex saw a 0.67 per cent correction.