Mahindra net profit down by 26.5 percent

Indias biggest tractor and utility vehicle producer, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd revealed today that its quarterly net profits fell by 26.5 percent.

Mumbai, May 28 : India's biggest tractor and utility vehicle producer, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd revealed today that its quarterly net profits fell by 26.5 percent.

Company officials said the drop was in line with market forecast created by rising interest rates and high raw-material costs. The fact that it also planned to launch two new models into the market was another factor for the drop in profits, a company release said.

Mahindra, which is the world's fourth-largest tractor maker, said net profit fell to 2.36 billion rupees in its fiscal fourth-quarter to end-March from 3.21 billion reported a year earlier.

A spokesperson of the company, however, said the company's turnover had touched new heights.

"The Auto volume was up by 15 per cent during the year and tractor volume was by 21 percent. In auto there is a significant increase in the export as well," the spokesman told reporters.

The company has announced its plans to launch two new models, a top official said.

"We have started working on SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) that will take us slightly up market to where we are with the product offerings. We are also looking for a mass-market platform for both cargo as well as passenger. And this vehicle will be launched form our Pune plant which was announced two months ago," Pawan Goenka, the president of the company's automotive sector, told reporters.

However, he did not give a time frame for the launch of the new models.

The company has registered 17.9 per cent increase in consolidated net profit for the year ended March 31, 2007.

According to a release issued by the company to the BSE today, the company's total income was up 41.6 per cent.

ANI