Exide Industries, one of the leading battery brands for the automotive and industrial segment has announced its financial results for Q3 and 9 months of FY2024.
In Q3, the company reported revenue of Rs 3,841 crore, up 12.57 percent YoY, and net profit of Rs 240 crore, up 7.6 percent compared to Rs 223 crore for the same period last year.
The company says higher raw material prices during the quarter led to margin pressures, though lower fixed costs restricted the impact to some extent. As a result of focused cost optimisiation initiatives undertaken, other expenses as a percentage of sales declined to 13.6% during the quarter from 14.3% in the same quarter of the previous year.
In the Automotive division, the last few months have seen an uptrend in demand in both OEM and Replacement markets. The uptick is broad-based, with most end-user markets showing signs of demand recovery. The Industrial division is benefiting from large investments which are giving strong impetus to sectors such as BFSI, Renewables, Telecom, and Infrastructure (Power, Railways etc).
For the first 9 months of FY2024, the revenue came at Rs 12,020 crore, versus Rs 11,049 crore for the same period last year.
During the current quarter, Exide invested Rs 730 crore as equity in its wholly-owned subsidiary, Exide Energy Solutions (EESL). The investment in EESL through the equity route is to the tune of Rs 1820 crore till December 2023. The onsite detailed construction works at its lithium cell manufacturing plant (housed under the subsidiary EESL) is progressing as per planned timelines. Training of technical team members with SVOLT is also well underway.
Subir Chakraborty, MD & CEO, Exide Industries said: “Demand was positive in both automotive and industrial divisions, and we achieved healthy growth in our key end-customer markets. We are optimistic about the future and are witnessing signs of demand pick-up across key verticals. Input cost inflationary pressures have started easing, which coupled with our cost optimisation initiatives is expected to support margins. We will continue to focus on delivering healthy sales growth and improvement in profitability levels in the near-to-medium term. Our lithium-ion cell manufacturing project is progressing as per scheduled timelines. Design and construction works are on track, and we are focusing on the on-boarding of customers on the one hand and securing strong raw material supply-chain linkages on the other. We are excited about the future and look forward to becoming one of the leading domestic players offering state-of-the-art products and solutions in the fast-growing electric mobility space as well as stationary applications.”
