Tata Motors Q3 net profit tanks 52% as Jaguar Land Rover margins dwindle
ending March 31 came in far below market estimates at 16.28 billion rupees ($303 million), down 52 percent on the year and the first fall since the three months to September 2011.
Analysts had expected average profit of 28.9 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine.
"Over the next couple of years, they are unlikely to generate much cash. That's a worry," said Joseph George, analyst at IIFL Institutional Equities in Mumbai.
JLR had net cash of 437 million pounds ($684 million) at end-September, but as it ploughs money into a new engine plant in Britain and a factory in China, it will no longer drive cash generation at its owner, Asia's seventh-biggest carmaker by market value.
Shares in Tata Motors, which is also listed in New York , fell 2.5 percent in Mumbai on Thursday before the results. The broader market ended down 0.6 percent.
MARGIN PRESSURE
JLR's cash was the primary reason behind an improvement in Tata Motors' consolidated net adjusted debt to operating EBITDA ratio to 0.98 in the year to last March from 1.21 in the previous year, ratings agency Fitch said in a recent note.
The maker of sleek Jaguar saloons and rugged Land Rover sport utility vehicles (SUV), raised $500 million in fresh debt last month and said it would raise funds from capital markets and banks to fuel its capital expenditure as required.
In China, the world's biggest auto market, JLR sales jumped 71 percent in 2012, making it the marque's No.2 market after Europe. JLR is investing $1.7 billion with
Be the first to comment.
