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Tata Motors profit up at Rs. 1,913 crore

— PHOTO: VIVEK BENDRE

NEW PLANS: Ravi Kant (centre), Managing Director, C. Ramakrishnan (left), Chief Financial Officer, and P. M. Telang, Executive Director, Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors, at a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday.

MUMBAI: Tata Motors has announced a net profit of Rs. 2,028.90 crore for 2007-08, an increase of 6 per cent over the previous year’s Rs. 1,913.46 crore.

The company’s margins were under pressure during the year due to rising interest rates, constraints in availability of vehicle financing from outside sources and unprecedented increase in input prices. The company had focussed on cost reduction measures but there have been delays in the introduction of two new products, which are soon to be launched.

Total sales volume (including exports) was at 5.86 lakh units (5.80 lakh units), which is the highest ever for the company. The company maintained its leadership position in commercial vehicles and was among the top three in the passenger vehicles, although it lost some market share. In the domestic market, commercial vehicle sales increased by 4.8 per cent to 3.13 lakh units and passenger vehicle sales declined by 4.5 per cent to 2.18 lakh units. Also, after six years of consecutive growth, 2007-08 saw a 5.3 per cent decline in the company’s sales volume due to heightened competition and other factors.

The company has maintained the dividend at Rs. 15 per share of Rs. 10 each for 2007-08. .

A new plant at Pant Nagar (in Uttarakhand) for Ace and the Magic range went on stream during 2007-08. Construction activity is on at Singur (in West Bengal) for Tata Nano and at Dharwad (in Karnataka) for buses to be made by the company’s joint venture, Tata Marcopolo Motors.

The plants in Pune, Jamshedpur and Lucknow are undergoing expansion and modernisation.

Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Ravi Kant, Managing Director, Tata Motors, said the investment over the next four to five years would be Rs. 10,000 crore.

“We have plans to introduce around 100 product/variants over the next 4-5 years. The World Truck product will be launched by the end of this year and the platform will unfold over the next 12-15 months. It will be launched simultaneously in India and Korea. The bus plant at Dharwad will probably be the largest bus manufacturing facility in the world,” he said.

Over the next 12-18 months, the company will be introducing variants of Ace, Marcopolo buses, the World Truck which is a medium and heavy commercial vehicle by Tata Daewoo, defence vehicles and ready to use solutions. Among the passenger vehicles, the company will introduce versions of Sumo Grande, a new Indica, Nano, Crossover, New Indigo, a new utility vehicle platform and the Fiat Punto and Fiat Linea from Fiat.

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