Maruti Suzuki net profit up two-fold on strong sales

The company had a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,227.45 crore in the previous financial year, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said in a statement.

The consolidated total income from operations during last fiscal soared by 42.27 per cent to Rs 30,122.51 crore from Rs 21,172.20 crore in the previous fiscal, it added.
The company's board also recommended a dividend of 120 per cent per share on a face value of Rs 5 each for 2009-10, resulting in a total outgo of Rs 173.35 crore.
MSI is the first Indian carmaker to sell over a million unit in a single financial year. It sold 10,18,365 units in 2009-10, which was 28.55 per cent higher than 7,92,167 units in the previous fiscal.

For the quarter ending March 31, 2010, the company's net profit shot up nearly three-fold at Rs 656.55 crore compared to Rs 243.13 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2008-09 fiscal.

"Though the profit in the quarter increased on the low base of last year, it was impacted to some extent by the cost of upgradation of the company's full range of cars to Bharat Stage-IV emission norms, cost of new model launches, higher raw material prices and adverse foreign exchange movement," the statement said.The total income from operations during the fourth quarter of the last fiscal increased by 30.96 per cent to Rs 8,424.55 crore from Rs 6,432.90 crore in the same period previous fiscal, it added.
During the quarter, MSI sold 2,87,422 units against 2,36,638 units in the year-ago period, the statement said.

MSI's domestic sales in 2009-10 stood at 8,70,790 units, while exports contributed 1,47,575 units."Countries contributing to exports included the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Netherlands in Europe, and Algeria, Chile, Indonesia and Australia in non Europe," the company said.

MSI, which more than doubled its exports in the last fiscal from about 70,000 units in FY'09, said it had added some new export markets such as South Africa, Hong Kong and Norway during 2009-10.