(Reuters) – Indian two-wheeler maker TVS Motor Company reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday hurt by higher costs, even as demand was stable.
‘Jupiter’ scooter maker’s profit rose 23.5% to 6.63 billion rupees ($78.86 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, which missed analysts’ estimate of 6.97 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.
During the quarter it incurred a 288.8 million rupees expense due to changes in inventories, compared to an income of 2.61 billion rupees a year ago, the company said without giving further details.
This pushed its total expenses up nearly 12%, with the cost of materials consumed increasing 4.3% in the quarter.
Revenue from operations rose 13.3% to 92.28 billion rupees, but fell short of analysts’ estimate of 94.21 billion rupees.
Total two-wheeler (2W) sales for the company increased 15% year-over-year to over a million units in the quarter, while sales across the country increased 15.8% in the quarter.
Rival Bajaj Auto posted a 21% rise in second-quarter adjusted profit last week helped by higher domestic motorcycles sales. Hero MotoCorp is yet to report quarterly results.
Shares of TVS Motor fell as much as 6.6% after results, before closing down 3.7%.
($1 = 84.0725 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Meenakshi Maidas in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
