India`s Tata Motors posts surprise Q2 profit drop on weak sales
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India's Tata Motors reported a surprise drop in second-quarter profit on Friday, hurt by weakness in both domestic sales and its luxury vehicles unit.
The company posted a profit of 33.43 billion rupees ($396.4 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down 11% on-year.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 43.96 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.
Tata Motors is India's third-largest carmaker by volume, but relies on British luxury carmaking unit Jaguar Land Rover for two-thirds of its revenue.
Revenue at JLR fell 1%, with unit sales dropping 10%. That dragged earnings margin before interest and taxes at the British carmaker down to 5.1%, from 7.3% a year before.
The automaker has seen sales decline across all three businesses, with analysts noting that promotional expenses, or costs to boost demand, rising especially at JLR.
The company, however, said it expects JLR's dispatches to dealers to recover in the second half of the current fiscal year 2025 as supply of aluminium normalises.
($1 = 84.3410 Indian rupees)
