Eicher Motors net profit zooms 76 pct in Dec quarter

Commercial vehicles maker Eicher Motors today reported 76.1 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 270.8 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015, riding on robust sales. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 153.77 crore in the year-ago period, Eicher Motors said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. During the quarter under review, total income of the company increased 45 per cent to Rs 3347.32 crore from Rs 2308.86 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The company, which has a joint venture with Sweden's Volvo, said total domestic sales of Eicher Trucks and Buses (5 Tonne and above) stood at 10,480 units in the period under review as against 7,740 units in the year-ago quarter, a growth of 35.4 per cent. On the other hand, sales of Volvo Trucks were at 353 units as against 264 units in the same quarter previous year, up 33.71 per cent. Total sales of the JV - VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) - were at 12,687 units in December quarter as against 9,492 units in the same period of the previous fiscal, up 33.65 per cent. Commenting on the performance, Eicher Motors Managing Director & CEO Siddhartha Lal said, "This has been a stellar quarter for VECV, the best ever over the last couple of years. VECV has not just registered growth across its product segments, it has also outpaced the industry thereby gaining market share." In the motorcycle segment, the company's arm Royal Enfield posted sales of 1,25,690 units as against 82,215 units in the year-ago period, up 52.87 per cent. He said the company had lost production of 11,200 motorcycles due to disruption at its manufacturing facilities because of the flood. The brand continues to have a robust demand for its products and has a very strong order book, he added. The company said in order to align with government requirements, its board of directors has extended the current financial year up to a period of 15 months - January 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016. Subsequently, each financial year of the company shall commence on April 1 and end on March 31 every year. Meanwhile, shares of the company closed trading at Rs 18128.45 apiece, up 7.01 per cent from the previous close on BSE.