BENGALURU (Reuters) -Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country’s top carmaker, posted quarterly profit below estimates on Wednesday, as rising raw material costs ate into margins despite more sales at higher prices.
Profit came in at 10.13 billion rupees ($126.79 million) for the quarter ended June 30, compared with 4.41 billion rupees a year ago when production was hampered by COVID-related disruptions.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 15.95 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.
Maruti, which sells every second car in India and is majority-owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, has hiked prices six times from January 2021 to June 2022, while cutting back on discounts as demand rebounded from pandemic lows.
The company’s average selling price per car during the quarter was 540,385 rupees versus 475,057 rupees a year ago, helped by higher sales of compact cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
Car makers around the world are raising prices to counter higher input and freight costs that are expected to take a bite out of their earnings.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization margin – a key measure of profitability – stood at 7.2%.
Analysts had expected an EBITDA margin of 8.8%, according to Refinitiv data.
Total revenue from operations came in at 265 billion rupees, compared with 177.71 billion rupees a year earlier.
($1 = 79.8950 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
