Mumbai, Jan 31: Aided by higher sales in the utility vehicle segment, Mahindra & Mahindra has reported a 23 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 77.76 crore during the third quarter ended December 31, 1999, against Rs 63.22 crore in the corresponding period last year. The gross sales and income from operations stood at Rs 1,171.86 crore, up from Rs 1,020.85 crore.The net profit for the nine months ended December 31, 1999, increased by 29.66 per cent to Rs 189.40 crore against Rs 146.07 crore during the corresponding period last year, an M&M release said.
Other income for the third quarter was at Rs 25.85 crore against Rs 18.02 crore. While interest for the third quarter was at Rs 36.17 crore against Rs 38.19 crore, depreciation was Insight and at Rs 30.73 crore as compared with Rs 28.72 crore.
The company has improved its market share in the utility vehicle segment to 60.06 per cent in the first nine months of the current year, up from 56.5 per cent in the same period last year. During the period, the company sold 49.063 utility vehicles in the domestic market as compared with 44,941 in the corresponding period last year, said the release.
While the industry showed an increase of 1.8 per cent in the utility vehicle segment in the first nine months of the current year, the company registered a growth of 9.2 per cent.
M&M's market share in the tractor market also improved to 29.6 per cent in the nine months of the current year from 27.6 per cent in the corresponding period last year. During the nine months, the company sold 58108 tractors against 50569 sold in the same period last year, registering a growth of 14.91 per cent.
Insight
expected show
The 16.60 per cent growth in third quarter revenues was expected given the improvement in utility vehicular demand. The company has managed to improve market shares in the UV segment to 60.6 per cent (from 56.5 per cent), which bodes well given the recent launch of the Toyota Qualis. Furthermore, the company with a 14.91 per cent growth in unit tractor sales has also managed to outstrip the industry growth of around 7 per cent.
With M&M now deciding to concentrate all its resources on the IDAM product codenamed Project Scorpio, it appears that the company has realistically understood where its strengths lie. A fact which also seems to have enthused the market valuations for M&M, which is currently trading at the Rs 518 levels.
Urmik Chhaya
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