Moneycontrol Bureau
Automobile battery manufacturer Exide Industries missed street expectations on every parameter with the third quarter (October-December) net profit falling 25.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 77.5 crore, impacted by weak demand.
P K Kataky, MD and CEO said continued sluggish demand had its impact on the performance of the company.
"In the replacement market, the demand for heavy duty and light duty commercial vehicles including passenger cars used for commercial application (taxi) remained subdued. Automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) had a degrowth. In industrial batteries, the demand for infrastructure, motive power, telecom and inverter batteries continued to be sluggish," Kataky elaborated.
Revenue for the quarter declined to Rs 1,301.4 crore from Rs 1,462.1 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.
According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected it to report net profit of Rs 126 crore on revenue of Rs 1,462 crore.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped 15 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 140 crore and operating profit margin declined 50 basis points on yearly basis to 10.8 percent in the quarter gone by.
Analysts had seen EBITDA rising 26 percent to Rs 208 crore and margin expanding 300 basis points to 14.2 percent for the quarter.
Other income of the company more than halved to Rs 5 crore from Rs 12.2 crore during the same period.
At 13:06 hours IST, the stock was trading at Rs 108.15, down 3.48 percent amid hefty volumes after hitting a 52-week low of Rs 106 on the BSE.
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