On Thursday when Bosch Ltd (formerly Mico India) announced its results for financial year (12 months) ending December 2007, the company did not disclose its performance for the quarter ending December 2007 to the media for some unexplained reason, even though it is customary for all listed companies to give quarterly figures.
Bosch’s annual figure showed that for the full year 2007 the company achieved a smart 16 per cent increase in total income to Rs 4576.54 crore and 11 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 609.20 crore.
However, the quarterly profit figures, available from stock exchanges, reveal a different picture. In the quarter ending December 2007 Bosch earned a net profit of Rs 124.41 crore, which was the lowest in four quarters of the year (See Table). The data shows that even though total income of the company was highest in the year, profit was lowest. Consequently, net margins too dropped significantly.
Another interesting revelation is that in the quarter ending December 2007 Bosch earned an “other income” (which is not a normal business income) of Rs 134.85 crore, which was almost Rs 100 crore more than average other income of the company in the previous quarters.
This means that in Bosch’s fourth quarter bottom line, close to Rs 100 crore was contributed by non-recurring income. For a meaningful analysis of quarterly trends in profits and net margins, such one time income must be netted out. Bosch’s net profit from operations for the December 2007 quarter will thus drop to around Rs 24 crore.
Announcing the results on Thursday, Managing Director Mr V K Viswanathan said “The year 2007 saw a significant slowdown in certain segments of automotive market, notably, tractors, two and three wheelers and heavy commercials.”
But the company did not respond to Deccan Herald’s query on why its profits for December quarter dropped so sharply.
Meanwhile the company’s share closed at Rs 3735 on Friday, 27 per cent lower than its January peak of Rs 5100.