Ashok Leyland reports 37% growth in Q2 profit after tax

CHENNAI: Ashok Leyland on Friday posted 37% growth in profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 770 crore in the quarter ended Sept 30, 2024 against Rs 561 crore in the same quarter last year. However, its revenue during Q2 FY25 declined by 9% at Rs 8,769 crore when compared to Rs 9,638 crore in the same quarter a year ago. This was due to a dip in domestic sales volumes.

The domestic sales volumes of medium and heavy commercial vehicle (MHCV) were at 25,685 second quarter of FY25, a decrease by 14% over 29,947 in Q2 FY24. LCV volume was at 16,629 in Q2 FY25 against 16,998 in Q2 last year, the company said in a statement.

Export volumes for the quarter ended Sept 30, 2024 rose by 14% at 3,310 from 2,901 during the same quarter last year.

“While the MHCV industry started off on a good note this year with 10% growth in Q1 (FY25), this momentum got dampened in Q2 because of seasonal factors like extreme weather conditions, uneven distribution of rainfall and slow take off in government capex spending resulting in a 12% drop in MHCV industry volume. We believe that these are temporary factors, and we remain optimistic about industry prospects for H2 and also for the medium term," Dheeraj Hinduja, executive chairman, Ashok Leyland, told reporters during a virtual press conference.

"We are intensifying our expansion strategy in our focused markets of SAARC, Middle East, Africa and Asia aimed at boosting the best performance ever during this fiscal," he added.

Later, he told TOI that the company has received inquiries from the Latin American market primarily for buses. "We have started getting inquiries from Latin American markets as well. We are currently looking at one particular order which could be for a few hundred vehicles.’

“But what is important for us is to make sure that there are good distributors that would be supporting us on the ground. So, I would say that while opportunities in Latin America are interesting and we will pursue them, it is not one of those markets where we are seeing very large volumes like SAARC, Middle East and even the African market to that extent. We have inquiries coming in, but it might still take us a little longer to really look at large volumes," Hinduja added.


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