Tata Motors gets a dividend of 150 million pounds from JLR

Tata Motors has just announced its fourth quarterly results and it continues to get a major dividend from Jaguar Land Rover. The British automotive company has been making profit as the Tata Motors management turned around the tables for the company. C. Ramakrishnan, CFO, Tata Motors tell us more in detail about the fourth quarterly results for Tata Motors:

Q1) Is the 150 million pounds dividend from JLR for this quarter or the whole year?
C.R.: We have been getting 150 million pounds every year from Jaguar Land Rover consistently for the last two years as dividend.

Q2) What is the major reason for a slow down in the sales?
C.R.: There has been a sustained deceleration in our current economic growth, other factors include high inflation, higher fuel prices, reduced availability of finance, elevated interest rate regime. This has continued to impact the demand for the entire Indian auto industry in general and commercial vehicle industry in specific, as getting loans for  light and medium commercial vehicles has been difficult.

Q3) How is the company looking to increase its sales in this year?
C.R.: Tata Motors has been working on it and if you see we have already launched the Tata Nano Twist, Vista Tech, Movus and the Aria. We will soon be launching the premium compact sedan Zest and the Bolt in the coming months.

Ranjit Yadav: We will have several new products coming up. As we have already showcased the Zestt and the Bolt at the Auto Expo and this is a new segment that we will be entering with these models. The premium compact sedan and the premium hatchback markets were untapped by Tata Motors and even the petrol market hasn’t been huge for us, but soon you shall see the Revotron engine powering the Zest and the Bolt. This will widen our portfolio. We even showcased the Nexon at the Auto Expo in Delhi and I had mentioned there also to expect this model to be ready in production in 18 months from then. We are working on it in the same direction.

Tata Motors today reported Consolidated revenues of Rs.65,317 crores for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, a growth of 16.6% over Rs. 56,002 crores for the corresponding quarter of the previous year, despite a weak operating and economic environment in the standalone business which was more than offset by strong demand for new products, growth in volumes, richer product mix and richer geographic mix at Jaguar Land Rover. The Consolidated Profit before Tax for the quarter was Rs.5,053 crores, as compared to Rs.4,698 crores for the corresponding quarter of the previous year and the Consolidated Profit for the quarter was Rs.3,918 crores as compared to Rs.3,945 crores for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.