Maruti Suzuki Q3 Results: Profit Falls 48% But Beats Estimates

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.’s profit fell as a global chip shortage and high commodity costs hurt sales. Yet, it beat estimates.

Net profit for India’s largest carmaker slumped 48% year-on-year to Rs 1,011.3 crore in the quarter ended December, according to an exchange filing. That compares with the Rs 913.4-crore consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

Lower non-operating income on account of mark-to-market impact, too, hurt, the filing said. The decline in earnings came even as the company cut costs and hiked prices across models.

Q3 FY22 Highlights (YoY)

• Revenue was down 1% at Rs 23,246 crore, compared with the Rs 23,261.5-crore estimate.

• Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dipped 30% to Rs 1,559 crore, against the Rs 1,394.5-crore forecast.

• Ebitda margin stood at 6.7% against 9.5%. Analysts had pegged the metric at 6%.

The Gurugram-based automaker sold a total of 4.3 lakh units during the third quarter, down 13% over the year earlier. Domestic market sales were down 22% at 3.65 lakh units.

Production, it said in the filing, was constrained by a global shortage in the supply of electronic components because of which an estimated 90,000 units could not be produced. “There was no lack of demand as the company had more than 2.4 lakh pending customer orders at the end of the quarter.”

The automaker also said, “Though still unpredictable, the electronics supply situation is improving gradually. It hopes to increase production in Q4, though it would not reach full capacity.”

Maruti Suzuki, however, clocked its highest ever exports at 64,995 units in the third quarter compared with 28,528 units a year ago. That was also 66% higher than the previous peak exports in any Q3, it said in the filing.

Shares of Maruti Suzuki were trading 4.32% higher after the results were announced compared with 0.44% gain in the benchmark Nifty 50.