The Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company Tata Motors reported a 96 percent fall in net profit for its third quarter, citing sharply lower earnings at its British luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover and losses in its domestic business. Consolidated net profit for the three months to Dec. 31 fell to 1.12 billion rupees ($16.7 million) from 29.53 billion a year earlier. Total income from operations fell 4.3 percent to 685.41 billion rupees.
Retail sales of its Jaguar sedans and Land Rover SUVs rose 8 percent to 149,288 vehicles in the three months through December from a year before, helped by a 38 percent rise in sales in China. While Jaguar retail sales rose about 90 percent to 45,364 vehicles, Land Rover sales fell 9 percent to 103,924 vehicles. Jaguar Land Rover's net profit declined to 167 million pounds ($208 million) from 440 million a year ago, on revenue up 13.1 percent to 6.5 billion. Tata Motors' domestic business reported a net loss of 10.46 billion rupees as it revamped its passenger cars business to boost sales and gain market share.
Earlier in February, Tata Motors unveiled a new car brand called TAMO, aimed at testing new technologies and enabling the company to become more responsive to changing market trends. The company is also implementing a management transformation from the beginning of April aimed at bringing in speed, simplicity and agility to deal with market volatility. The company expects to see a much better fourth quarter.
