Tata Motors slumped to a loss in its latest quarter, showing lingering pain at its Jaguar Land Rover unit after a crippling cyberattack shut down production.
The Indian parent posted a loss of 34.9 billion rupees (R6.2 billion) for the three months through December, versus a profit of 54.1 billion rupees (R9.7 billion) a year earlier, it said Thursday.
Revenue fell 26% to 701.1 billion rupees (R125 billion).
JLR, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the Indian parent’s sales, swung to a pretax loss of £310 million (R6 billion).
The maker of Range Rover sport utility vehicles has been grappling with the fallout from last year’s cyberattack, which shut down production at all its factories for almost six weeks starting in September.
The impact was so severe that the UK government was forced to step in with a £1.5 billion (R33 billion) loan guarantee to support struggling suppliers.
Production at Britain’s largest automaker returned to more normal levels only by mid-November, causing deliveries to slump 43% in the quarter.
Volumes declined across all regions, with North America and Europe posting the steepest falls, JLR said.
The planned wind-down of legacy Jaguar models, a slump in China demand and higher US tariffs also weighed on sales.
The job of turning the company around falls to new Chief Executive Officer PB Balaji, who joined in November from Tata Motors, where he was finance chief.
Tata Motors recorded exceptional costs of 15.96 billion rupees (R2.9 billion)in the quarter, including from the cyberattack and related supplier claims, as well as from India’s new labour codes bill.
JLR doesn’t anticipate any extra costs in the current quarter tied to the shutdown, Chief Financial Officer Richard Molyneux told reporters on a call.
Plants in Solihull, England and Nitra, Slovakia, are now back at full capacity, he said.
The British carmaker stuck to its profitability guidance for the full year, having warned in November that its margins could be entirely wiped out.
Tata Motors saw some buoyancy in its domestic market after lower consumption taxes in India spurred car sales in the quarter, when there’s normally a festival-related spending spree.
The vehicle business in India, which was also boosted by the launch of the new Tata Sierra SUV, crossed 200,000 units for the first time.
JLR will make cars at its parent’s new Tamil Nadu plant in southern India, Molyneux said, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.
Loading ...
