New Delhi: Homegrown diversified group Mahindra & Mahindra on Friday reported 44 per cent increase in consolidated profit at Rs 2,773 crore for September quarter, driven by robust performance in automotive and farm equipment verticals.
The group had logged a net profit of Rs 1,929 crore in July-September last fiscal year, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) said in a regulatory filing.
Revenue from operations during the quarter under review rose to Rs 29,870 crore from Rs 21,470 crore in the year-ago period.
In September quarter, the automotive segment’s revenue rose to Rs 15,231 crore from Rs 8,245 crore in the year-ago period. Similarly, revenue from the farm equipment segment increased to Rs 7,506 crore from Rs 6,723 crore.
Revenue from the financial services vertical rose to Rs 2,974 crore as against Rs 2,909 crore, while the hospitality business posted a revenue of Rs 598 crore in the period under review compared with Rs 560 crore in the year-ago quarter. The real estate segment saw a revenue of Rs 70 crore in the quarter as against Rs 59 crore earlier.
M&M Managing Director & CEO Anish Shah said the group’s robust financial results reflect the progress it has made in its strategic imperatives.
“While the auto segment has led growth, we have seen steady performance across our group companies. Our journey of creating value and providing growth capital continued,” he added.
M&M, on a standalone basis, reported a revenue of Rs 20,839 crore in the second quarter, up 57 per cent as compared with the year-ago period. Profit after tax increased 46 per cent to Rs 2,090 crore.
The auto major said it sold a total of 1,74,098 vehicles in the period under review, 75 per cent higher from 99,334 units in September quarter 2021-22. Tractor sales increased 5 per cent to 92,590 units in the quarter.
“It has been an action-packed quarter with multiple product launches and new products across segments, in addition to partnership announcements with BII and Volkswagen,” M&M Executive Director Rajesh Jejurikar said. The company has recorded its highest quarterly revenue for auto and farm segments, he added.
“In SUVs, we continue to be the revenue market share leader. Festive sales have been strong this year across auto and farm sectors,” Jejurikar stated.
In a virtual press conference after releasing quarterly numbers, he said the company is in the process of enhancing production capacity of its sports utility vehicles over the next 12-15 months to reduce long waiting periods for some of the models like XUV700 and Scorpio-N.
“The capacity will increase to 39,000 units per month by the end of this fiscal. It would further be enhanced to 49,000 units a month by the end of next fiscal,” he said.
It is part of the capex already announced by the company.
The capacity increase will prepare the company for export upsides and clear existing bookings of about 2.6 lakh units with waiting period of 18-22 months on some of the models.
On a query regarding the electric vehicle production capacity, Jejurikar said: “By the year 2027 we expect 20-30 per cent of our SUV volumes to be electric. Some of the capacities will overlap with internal combustion engine (ICE). So in a way we are preparing for somewhere between 12,000 to 17,000 units a month by 2027 for the electric portfolio.”
When asked if the company would continue to sell diesel cars, he said: “We will continue to produce diesel engines. These engines in the BS-VI ‘avatar’ are fuel efficient and actually help in achieving CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) norms…it is also our area of strength….”
On the company’s plans regarding transition to the next stage of emission norms which will kick in from April next year, Jejurikar said M&M would initiate the process in January- February next year and complete the task in March. On a query regarding the business outlook, he said: “In our portfolio demand has been strong..one thing which needs to be seen industry wise is what happens to less than Rs 10 lakh price points and what happens in rural areas.”
On the chip shortage situation, he said, it still needs a lot of constant tracking and follow-up and is expected to stay like that for next few quarters, Jejurikar said.
Shares of the company ended 0.83 per cent down at Rs 1,287.15 apiece on the BSE.
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