Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, India's top utility vehicle maker by sales, reported on May 29 its steepest fall in quarterly profit in more than six years, hit by poor sales in rural areas where unseasonal rains have hurt farm incomes.
Mahindra's standalone profit for the fourth quarter ended March fell 39 percent to 5.51 billion rupees ($86.4 million) from a year earlier. This is the steepest fall since December 2008 when the company reported an 89 percent drop in quarterly profit.
The profit of 5.51 billion rupees is also the lowest since end-December 2009, Reuters data showed.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 5.91 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Storms and unseasonal rains have badly damaged over 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) of crops, mostly in large parts of northern India. Dozens of farmers have committed suicide in recent weeks and many others are reeling under debt.
Shares of Mahindra, the world's largest tractor-maker by volume, surprisingly ended 5 percent higher at 1,258 rupees after the numbers.
Analysts attributed this to higher-than-expected net sales and an improvement in realisations in the automotive and farm equipment sectors.
The company's net sales fell 13 percent to 94.12 billion rupees.
Comments
Comments are closed.