It's been a rather challenging year for the Indian auto industry and majority of automakers are witnessing a slump in profits. India's largest carmaker has reported a negative growth of 4.6 per cent in its Q4 profit and now even Hero MotoCorp, India's largest two-wheeler maker has reported worrisome results. The company has reported a de-growth of 24 per cent in its Q4 profit at Rs. 730 crore against a base of Rs. 967 crore. Its revenue was down by 7.9 per cent at Rs. 7885 crore against Rs. 8564 crore in the previous year. Its EBIDTA stood at Rs. 1069 crore maintaining a margin of 13.6 per cent compared to 16 per cent in the Q4 of the previous financial year.
The annual financials of Hero MotoCorp which combines all the four quarters also were negative. Though, the company witnessed a growth of 4.4 per cent in its annual revenue at Rs. 33,651 crore against a base of Rs. 32,230 crore, its profit were down by 8.43 per cent at Rs. 3385 crore against a base of Rs. 3697 crore. EBIDTA for the year stood at Rs. 4930 crore maintaining a margin of 14.7 per cent against 16.4 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
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Commenting on the results, Dr. Pawan Munjal, Chairman, Hero MotoCorp said, "We remain committed to creating sustained value for our stakeholders. It is a testimony to our grit and resilience that we registered record sales of 7.8 million units during the fiscal, amidst a sluggish market scenario in several geographies and maintained our Leadership amidst challenging market environments. We also gave shape to our vision of creating multiple hubs of R&D excellence by setting-up our first international technology center in Germany. Our commitment towards environment remains a continuous effort as our upcoming new Garden Factory at Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh leaps towards completion. Most significantly, this fiscal, we forayed into two new product segments the premium motorcycle space with Xtreme 200R' and the 125cc scooter category with 'Destini 125. We are aiming for aggressive market share gains in these categories. While the near-term prospect of the domestic two-wheeler market is likely to remain challenging, the festive season however is expected to brighten the sentiment and revive growth in the second half of FY'20."
Hero MotoCorp sold 17,81,160 units of two-wheelers in the Q4 of FY19 and 78,20,754 units in the whole financial year. The company said that the fourth quarter was a difficult period that saw the two-wheeler industry contract significantly in the face of external factors. It is not expecting a major push until the coming festive season. The company will even have to incur the cost of BS6 transition in FY20 which is likely to keep the profit under pressure.
