India's top vehicle maker Tata Motors, which controls Jaguar Land Rover, announced on Nov. 14 that consolidated quarterly profit slumped 16% from a year earlier, hit by higher costs.
The auto giant reported a consolidated net profit of 18.77 billion rupees (US$373.24 million) in the three months to the end of September, down from 22.23 billion rupees a year earlier.
Analysts had expected the company to post a second-quarter profit of around 20 billion rupees.
Sales for the July-September period jumped 2% to 359.38 billion rupees, said the company, which owns British luxury car brands Jaguar and Land Rover.
Tata Motors, part of the salt-to-steel Tata conglomerate, which manufactures utility vehicles and the ultra-low-cost Nano car, has been hit by higher raw material costs, a slowing domestic sales market and foreign currency losses.
The company reported a foreign currency loss of 4.4 billion rupees during the quarter compared to a gain of 1.3 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.
New car sales in India fell 24% in October to 138,521 units -- their sharpest decline in more than a decade -- as high interest rates and rising fuel prices hurt demand.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011
