Coronavirus Impact: Eicher Motors Net Profit Plunges To Rs. 304 Crore In Q4 FY20

Eicher Motors on Friday officially announced its financial results for the fourth quarter as well as the year ended March 31, 2020. The company recorded a total revenue from operations of Rs. 2,208 crores, witnessing a fall of 12 per cent as compared to Rs. 2,500 crores in the corresponding quarter of FY 2018-19. The EBITDA stood at Rs. 432 crores with a decrease of 37 per cent. It stood at Rs. 685 crores in the same quarter of the previous financial year. Additionally, the company's Profit After Tax massively dipped to Rs. 304 crores in comparison to Rs. 545 crores during the same period last year.

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Royal Enfield retailed 163,083 motorcycles during Q4 FY 2019-2020, recording a decline of 17 per cent. The two-wheeler manufacturer sold 197,567 motorcycles in the same period in FY 2018-19. The massive drop in number is due to the nationwide lockdown that came into effect by the second half of March along with an overall slowdown in the automobile business.

The company saw a huge demand for motorcycles from the international markets witnessing significant growth of 96% during FY20

The two-wheeler manufacturer sold 697,582 motorcycles in the year, down 15 per cent from 822,724 motorcycles sold in FY 2018-19. However, the motorcycle sales to the international markets witnessed a significant growth of 96 per cent with 38,700 motorcycles sold as compared to the previous financial year. The total revenue of Royal Enfield from operations dropped by 7 per cent to Rs. 9,154 crores, compared to Rs. 9,797 crores recorded for the year ended March 2019.

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Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicle (VECV) managed to sell 11,629 trucks and buses in the last quarter of the FY2019-20. It recorded a decline of 45 per cent wherein the company sold 21,010 trucks and buses in the same period last financial year.

Siddhartha Lal, Managing Director of Eicher Motors Ltd, said, “This has been a tough year overall for the industry, and the global pandemic during the last quarter brought with it unprecedented challenges and disruptive changes. At Eicher Motors, we have witnessed the impact of this situation, but have chosen to focus on the opportunities within these problems. With a commitment to our long term plans, we moved swiftly to tackle the roadblocks, to safeguard our businesses and to do our bit towards relief and support measures. Now, as the lockdown is easing out, we see strong initial customer interest and confidence.”

Production for the new BS6 compliant trucks and buses has begun at VECV's Pithampur facility

He further mentioned that “Both at Royal Enfield and VECV, we have transitioned our entire product portfolio to the new BS-VI emission norms, and also managed to sell our entire BS-IV inventory well ahead of the mandated timeline. Our BS-VI products have received great feedback from customers and we have planned a strong product line-up going forward. We have built our businesses on solid fundamentals. We have a strong balance sheet and cash position, a robust business model with a very focused approach, and an exceptional management team at Royal Enfield and VECV. This has helped us tremendously in facing current challenges and gives us the confidence that we will emerge stronger from this crisis.”

The Q4 of this fiscal was significantly challenging because of the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. The company suspended production and retail operations between March 23, and May 5, as per the guidelines from the Indian government. The company resumed operations, and more than 90 per cent of its retail network is now operational across the country. Moreover, the Eicher Motors Group has pledged an initial CSR outlay of Rs. 50 crores towards various immediate relief and support measures to tackle the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.