Maruti Q4 net zooms 80% on Ertiga, Swift demand

India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki on Friday beat market estimates by a mile by posting a 80% year-on-year rise in net profit to ₹1,148 crore during the last quarter of 2012-13, benefiting from robust sales of its Swift hatchback and Dzire sedan as well as the Ertiga, the first utility vehicle in the country.

The profit figures boosted the company's share price by 5.3% to ₹1,674 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The company had posted a net profit of ₹640 crore a year-ago.

Analysts had forecast a net profit of ₹722 crore during the fourth quarter.

Net sales during the quarter grew 9.4% to ₹12,567 crore.

For the entire 2012-13 fiscal, the company posted a 40.7% rise in standalone net profit to ₹2,300 crore against ₹1,635 crore in the previous fiscal.

Standalone net sales went up 21.4% to R42,123 crore in 2012-13 from ₹34,706 crore in 2011-12.

"The last financial year was a challenging one for the domestic passenger vehicle industry but we managed to grow by 4.4% and improve our marketshare by 1% point thanks to demand for our new models like Swift, Dzire and Ertiga," said Shinjo Nakanishi, director, MSIL.

"The small car segment declined by 13% during the year while utility vehicle share went up to 21% but it is not that the market has shifted from small to big cars but just that the small car buyers are not buying at all."

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