Ashok Leyland Net Profit Drops 58% To Rs 158 Crore In March Quarter

Hinduja group flagship Ashok Leyland on Thursday reported a 58.14 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 157.85 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2022, pulled down by higher expenses.

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 377.13 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal, Ashok Leyland said in a regulatory filing.

The commercial vehicle maker posted a consolidated revenue from operations at Rs 9,926.97 crore in the fourth quarter as compared to Rs 8,142.11 crore in the year-ago period.

Total expenses were higher at Rs 9,429.55 crore as against Rs 7,831.21 crore earlier, with cost of materials and services shooting up to Rs 6,580.81 crore from Rs 5,481.04 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

The company also incurred exceptional items outgo of Rs 266.71 crore in the fourth quarter on various fronts, including impairment in the value of goodwill and net assets of subsidiaries, loss of valuation of the investment, and voluntary retirement scheme.

Ashok Leyland said its board has recommended a 100 per cent dividend of Re 1 per equity share of Re 1 each for the financial year ended March 31, 2022.

For the full fiscal 2021-22, the company's consolidated net loss widened to Rs 285.45 crore. It had posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 69.6 crore in 2020-21.

Consolidated revenue from operations for the fiscal was at Rs 26,237.15 crore as compared to Rs 19,454.1 crore in FY21.

On a standalone basis, Ashok Leyland said its profit after tax was at Rs 901 crore in the fourth quarter as against Rs 241 crore in the year-ago period.

Standalone revenue stood at Rs 8,744 crore in the fourth quarter as against Rs 7,000 crore earlier.

"We have seen a recovery in Q4 FY'22 and the overall performance has been very good. The CV industry is on a recovery owing to the improvement in the macroeconomic environment and healthy demand from the end-user industries," Ashok Leyland Executive Chairman Dheeraj Hinduja said.

The MHCV (medium and heavy commercial vehicle) segment is leading the recovery, riding on the back of growth in core sectors such as construction and mining, agriculture, the increased capital outlay for infrastructure projects, and pent-up replacement demand, he added.

Light commercial vehicle volumes, driven by increased demand for last-mile connectivity, especially from the e-commerce segment, are expected to grow further, Hinduja said.

Looking ahead, he said, "We are keenly following the commodity prices, and the situation on the supply of semiconductors and hope that both will ease."