Maruti Suzuki Q2 profit soars 60 percent, beats estimates

By Samantha Kareen Nair

REUTERS - Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India's biggest-selling automaker, posted a better than expected 60 percent surge in second-quarter net profit as demand grew for its compact and utility vehicles.

Maruti, controlled by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, said on Thursday profit for July-September was 23.98 billion rupees ($358.66 million), up from 14.97 billion rupees in the same period a year prior. (http://bit.ly/2ey6Hs1)

Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 17.92 billion rupees, Thomson Reuters data showed.

The Indian company's results are important to parent Suzuki, with the Japanese company's 56.2 percent stake in Maruti worth about $15 billion, or nearly 87 percent of Suzuki's $17.3 billion market value.

Domestic sales of Maruti's compact vehicles grew 8.6 percent in the second quarter year-on-year to 146,265, while utility vehicle sales surged 150 percent to 52,611, the company said.

Domestic sales at other segments also grew, in percentage terms.

"The company is well on track and confident of achieving double-digit growth during the year," Chairman R C Bhargava said at a post-results press conference, citing favourable market conditions and better production levels. It was not immediately clear what growth Bhargava was referring to.

Maruti has said earlier this year it is targeting double-digit sales growth in India in the 2016/17 financial year.

Total income from operations rose about 29 percent to 202.97 billion rupees.

Shares in Maruti, valued by the market at about $26.5 billion, closed 0.2 percent lower on Thursday, in a broader market that was slightly higher.

($1 = 66.8600 rupees)

(Reporting by Samantha Kareen Nair in BENGALURU; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)