Tata Motors Group's March quarter net profit declined by 56.2 per cent to Rs 1,716 crore due to massive asset write-downs, 220-million pound forex loss and poor show by its cash-cow British arm.
The company had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,918.29 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal.
The Tata Group company, which is the country's largest automaker by revenue, has to incur Rs 3,857 crore in amortisation and depreciation expenses during the quarter under review against Rs 3,125 crore a year ago.
The same rose to Rs 13,387 crore from Rs 11,078 crore for the full financial year.
Consolidated revenue for the year jumped close to 13 per cent to Rs 2,62,796 crore, out of which JLR contributed around 85 per cent, while consolidated net profit for the year inched down to Rs 13,986 crore from Rs 13,991 crore.
The company officials sounded confident of the current fiscal, expecting better sales from the second half on the back of new launches and the initial pick-up it has seen in the first month of the year.
Tata Motors's April sales rose 37 per cent against the industry growth of around 16 per cent on the back of three new products in the domestic market and an equal number by JLR.
The company attributed the steep fall in profit to higher depreciation and amortisation due to product replacements (three each at both the businesses) and adverse mark-to-market of un-matured hedges not eligible for hedge accounting, which shaved off 220 million pounds.
"We hope that the worst is behind as the rate of deceleration has been slowing down consistently. We hope the momentum is picking up speed in the second half of the year," President, Commercial Vehicles unit, Ravi Pisharodi said.
He said, the company will invest between Rs 3,000 crore and Rs 4,000 core in capex this fiscal, while JLR will spend over 3.8 billion in capex this fiscal.
Its marquee British arm Jaguar Land-Rover's (JLR) revenues for the quarter rose close to 9 per cent at 5,826 million pounds. JLR profit before tax was down 31.3 per cent to 396 million pounds due to higher depreciation and amortisation and unfavourable revaluation of forex debt and unrealised hedges that are not eligible for hedge accounting treatment.
