A customer looks at an Exide solar charge controller for purchase at a shop inside a wholesale electronics market in Kolkata, India, March 19, 2024. REUTERS
May 4 (Reuters) – India’s Exide Industries reported a 22.7% rise in fourth-quarter profit, as buoyant automotive demand and the continued tailwind from India’s tax cuts last September boosted demand for its batteries.
Here are some details:
- The company’s standalone profit after tax rose to 3.12 billion rupees ($32.8 million) in the quarter ended March 31, from 2.55 billion rupees a year earlier
- Revenue from operations climbed 9.4% to 45.51 billion rupees
- Tax cuts continued to drive demand across the automotive sector, with two-wheeler, three-wheeler and four-wheeler segments growing in double digits year-on-year in the fourth-quarter
- The firm’s export business posted a double-digit decline as geopolitical conflicts closed multiple shipping routes and created container shortages
- Exide’s auto business grew more than 25% year-on-year
- MD & CEO Avik Roy said the company expects auto, auto replacement and inverters businesses “to continue their strong growth momentum into Q1 of current financial year”
- Sustained depreciation of rupee would put further pressure on costs, Roy said
($1 = 95.0363 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala
