Bajaj Auto Ltd, the two-wheeler major, on Thursday, declared an 18% rise in its consolidated net profit to ₹2,011.43 crore in the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2024 from ₹1,704.74 crore during the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The company also reported ₹11,554.95 crore as consolidated total revenue from operations during Q4FY24, a 29.4% rise year-on-year (Y-o-Y) aided by strong domestic demand for its motorcycles and steady exports.
The company’s earnings were above standalone Bloomberg estimates of ₹11,114 crore ( ₹11,484.68 crore) during the final quarter of FY24.
The Pune-based automaker's full-year consolidated net profit rose 27.2% on year to ₹7,708.24 crore (FY24). The company also reported consolidated total revenue of ₹44,870.43, a rise of 23% Y-o-Y arising from the record sales of both vehicles and spares; strong domestic performance more than made up for the muted exports which continued to be impacted by the challenging context in overseas markets.
“We established multiple records in this year; highest ever revenue, highest ever Ebitda, highest PAT, highest ever free cash flow, highest Pulsar volumes, highest three-wheeler volumes and highest ever KTM volumes in India," said Rakesh Sharma, Executive Director, Bajaj Auto Ltd. "We have been expanding quite aggressively from 200 stores to 600 in two-four months. We believe that we will grow faster than what we did in FY24 as the industry has grown at about 28% in FY24 and I think it will continue to grow post some interruption.”
During the current fiscal, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) stood at ₹8,825 crores crore with a margin of 19.7%. The cost of raw materials and components consumed during the financial year rose by 24% to ₹29,267.47 crore. While two-wheeler sales rose by about 26% to 916,817 units in the quarter.
During the quarter in consideration, the company's revenue from exports rose to double digits year-on-year, benefitting from a richer mix and better realisations, the company said in a statement. The company’s volumes rose 20% Y-o-Y due to a low base in FY23, the company said.
International markets account for about 40% of total two-wheeler sales for Bajaj Auto, India's largest exporter of motorcycles. On a twelve-month basis, exports closed flat after a rise in the second half of the current fiscal. “They are almost all showing signs of recovery even in Africa, but largely Latin America which achieved its highest sales, further aided by Middle East and North Africa. Our Brazil plant is going to come on stream by early June which will help us to service a lot of pent-up demand as well as open the network. Then we are also entering Europe,” Sharma said. “We have also been shipping out the four-seater auto-taxi Qute to Egypt in April and we hope to build on this in the coming years. So, the trajectory of exports in Q1FY25 is likely to be similar like Q4FY24.”
The company during FY24 also recorded a healthy balance sheet with a surplus of ₹16,386 crore after making capital investments of ₹800 crore and paying ₹8,900 crore to shareholders between dividends and the share buyback.
In a late evening moveBajaj Auto moved CTO Abraham Joseph to the Chetak Technology unit as MD, with Ramtilak Ananthan taking his place as CTO.
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