Maruti Suzuki's third-quarter profit rises on festive sales
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd on Thursday reported a rise in third-quarter profit, as more consumers bought vehicles during the festive season and customers returned to showrooms after lockdowns eased across the country.
Indians typically are seen making big-ticket purchases during the festive season, which was in mid-November.
Maruti, which sells every second car in India, saw demand for small cars as buyers turned to personal mobility in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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In the third quarter, domestic unit sales of India's top carmaker rose year-on-year to 495,897 vehicles.
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Passenger vehicle sales in December surged 13.6% from a year earlier, India's trade body said earlier this month, but warned of rising costs.
The pandemic worsened problems for Indian carmakers, who were already witnessing tepid demand and an inventory pile-up. The companies are now also facing a global shortage of microprocessor chips and shipping containers.
Earlier this month, Maruti joined several carmakers in India to raise prices of some car models to tackle the impact of rising raw material costs.
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Net profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 came in at 19.41 billion rupees ($265.46 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2020, compared with a profit of 15.65 billion rupees last year.
Analysts on average had expected Maruti to post a profit of 18.79 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.
Revenue from operations rose 13.3% to 234.58 billion rupees.
