Force Motors gains 4% to hit a new high on healthy May sales numbers

The company reported a healthy 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and month-on-month (MoM) jump in its total sales of 2,645 units in May month.

Shares of Force Motors (FML) gained 4 per cent to hit a new high of Rs 1,974 in Tuesday’s intra-day trade, after the company reported 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and month-on-month (MoM) jump in total sales at 2,645 units in May month.

In the year-ago period, the company had sold a total of 2,026 units, whereas last month, it had sold total of 2,042 units, the company said.

The company’s exports sales nearly-doubled on a MoM basis at 491 units in May month, against 166 units sold in export market during last month. On YoY basis, export sales grew 54.8 per cent from 317 units sold in May 2022. The company’s domestic sales were up 14.8 per cent MoM and 26 per cent YoY at 2,154 units.

FML is a flagship company of the Abhay Firodia group. The company is fully vertically integrated manufacturer of small and light commercial vehicles (LCVs), multi-utility vehicles, and agricultural tractors.

Under the auto components division, engines are assembled for Mercedes-Benz India and BMW India. The primary brands in LCVs and multiutility vehicles include Traveller, Trax, Gurkha and Shaktiman, while the brands in tractors are Balwan, Orchard, Abhiman and Sanman.

Meanwhile, in the past seven trading days, the stock price of FML has zoomed 41 per cent after the company reported robust earnings during the March quarter of FY23.

FML's consolidated net profit came in at Rs 146.62 crore, as against a net loss of Rs 42.77 crore, which it had posted in the year-ago quarter (Q4FY22), and loss of Rs 15.57 crore in the previous quarter (Q3FY23).

The company reported net exceptional income of Rs 208.32 crore during the quarter. This included exceptional income of Rs 308 crore as part of Madhya Pradesh state government's Industrial Investment Promotion Assistance Scheme, 2010, recognised on the basis of sanction orders received on March, 2023 for the years 2017-18 to 2020-21.

In Q4FY23, Force Motors' revenue from operations grew 69 per cent to Rs 1,490 crore from Rs 881 crore in Q4FY22.

Operating margins during the quarter stood at 10.65 per cent as compared to 0.86 per cent in the year ago quarter, due to price hikes taken despite cool off in key raw material prices like steel.