Maruti Suzuki Profit Falls 3% In Q4

Published: Saturday, April 28, 2012, 18:05 [IST]

India's leading carmaker Maruti Suzuki had a 3 per cent fall in fourth net quarter profit. However, the company beat estimates with a smaller-than-expected 3 percent fall.

The fall in profit can be accounted to the carmakers sluggish sales growth and tighter margins. Maruti has had a troubled year with labour strikes and an industry-wide demand slowdown hitting sales and dragging down profits due to rising input prices and weakening rupee costs.

Profit fell to 6.40 billion rupees in January - March quarter from 6.80 billion rupees a year earlier. Meanwhile, the company's revenue rose 17.2 percent to 114.86 billion rupees.

A major stake, 54.2 per cent of Maruti' is owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. Analysts had expected a net profit of 5.64 billion rupees.