Tata Motors slides on poor Q1 results

TATA Motors reported a surprise loss in Q1FY19 due to weaker JLR earnings and foreign exchange losses in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

The consolidated revenue of the quarter rose by 12 per cent yoy on the back of strong sales growth in commercial vehicles and traction in passenger vehicle segment. The revenue for the quarter stood Rs. 65,956 crore in Q1FY19 vs Rs. 58,766 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The EBITDA for the quarter posted subdued growth of 27 per cent yoy decline at Rs. 3298 crore in Q1FY199 vs Rs. 4,543 crore in the same quarter the previous year. The EBITDA margins also contracted by 270 bps to 5 per cent in Q1FY19 vs 7.7 per cent in the previous year. This was largely due to heavy losses on foreign exchange to the tune of Rs. 1,000 crore.

Further, the company also posted net loss of Rs. 2,168 crore in Q1FY19 vs net profit of Rs. 2,529 crore in the previous year and Rs. 1,330 crore in the previous quarter. Higher interest expenses incurred by the company along with poor operational performance have led to negative bottom-line for the quarter

Reacting to the surprise results, the stock of TATA Motors was trading down by 3.3 per cent at Rs. 255 per share in the morning session on Wednesday