Battling rising input costs and high interest on consumer loans within its automotive business, the $6.7 billion Mahindra Group on Wednesday reported a consolidated profit after exceptional items and minority interest of Rs 1,571 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2008 as compared to Rs Rs 1497.2 crore over the last fiscal, a growth of 4.9%. The group revenues grew 37% to Rs 26,600 crore for the fiscal, as compared to Rs 19,417.5 crore during the same period last year.
The results for the fiscal include a one time exceptional charge towards an exclusivity payment of Rs 440.1 crore to a customer by group company Tech Mahindra, the company said.
On a standalone basis, M&M has reported a net profit of Rs 1,103.4 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2008 as against Rs 1,068.4 crore during the same period last year. The standalone revenues of the company grew by 14.5% to Rs 13,238 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2008 compared with Rs 11,558 crore during the same period last year.
However, for the quarter ended March, M&M’s standalone profits, after considering exceptional items, prior period adjustments and taxation, fell to Rs 221.1 crore compared with Rs 236 crore in Q4 last fiscal.
The M&M stock was marginally down (0.46%) to close at Rs 641.60 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
“Despite the overall economic environment which includes high oil prices, steel and other commodity prices, inflation and interest rates, we have been able to maintain double digit growth,” said Bharat Doshi, executive director and group chief financial officer, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) Ltd, adding that this fiscal year will be a challenging one.
He said that the company has been able to contain raw material cost and will fine tune pricing strategy to keep prices under control. The company has drawn a capital expenditure plan of Rs 2,000 crore which will be directed mainly towards the upcoming Chakan plant and new products for international trucks.