New Delhi: Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) on Wednesday reported a marginal increase in profit after tax for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, at Rs 718.39 crore, pulled down by decline in three-wheeler sales.
The company had posted profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 711.06 crore in the same period a year ago. Total income from operations during the first quarter of this fiscal stood at Rs 4,865.66 crore against Rs 4,706.29 crore in the year-ago period.
During the period under review, BAL's total sales stood at 10,78,971 units against 10,92,815, down one percent.
"Our overall three-wheeler sales were impacted as our exports to Sri Lanka and Egypt were affected due to different reasons," BAL Senior Vice President (Business Development & Assurance) S Ravikumar said.
In Sri Lanka, the company had almost nil sales in June as taxes were increased in the country by almost 40 percent, while in Egypt the political unrest affected sales, he added.
"Now, we have undertaken substantial price reduction in Sri Lanka for three-wheeler and started selling our products. By August we expect sales to touch 7,000 to 8,000 units, which will be near our previous normal level of 10,000 units a month," Ravikumar said.
As for Egypt, things have started improving and the company is nearing the normal sales level of 5,000 unit a month, he added.
During the first quarter, the company's three-wheeler sales declined by 26 percent to 96,348 units against 1,29,764 units in the year-ago period.
The decline was mainly on account of a big slide in its exports, which stood at 51,511 units against 87,488 units in the year-ago quarter, down 41 percent.
"BAL, due to restrictions by importing countries and political unrest in Egypt, lost sales of 25,000 units in this quarter," the company said.
Total motorcycle sales during the quarter stood at 9,82,623 compared to 9,63,051 units in the same quarter last fiscal, up two percent.
Domestic motorcycle sales, however, declined by one percent during the period to 6,18,489 units as against 6,23,175 units in the year-ago quarter.
"The overall economic situation in India has had an impact on our motorcycle sales. We expect the second quarter also to be subdued but in the second half of the fiscal sales will pick up again," Ravikumar said, adding BAL was sticking to its forecast of selling a total of five million vehicles in this fiscal.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 17:30