Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Maruti Q4 Net Profit Up 24%, Beats Forecast

Top Indian car maker Maruti Udyog Ltd. (MRTI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research reported a 24 percent rise in quarterly net profit on Tuesday, as cost cutting and strong sales of its fuel-efficient small cars offset volatile raw material costs. Maruti, 54.2 percent owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. (7269.T: Quote, Profile, Research, said it earned a net profit of 4.49 billion rupees

($109 million) in the January-March quarter, up from 3.61 billion in the same period a year earlier.

That beat a forecast of 4.23 billion rupees in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.

Sales of Maruti vehicles, including the best-selling Alto and Swift hatchback, rose 30 percent to 200,112 units in the quarter.

Shares of Maruti, which has a market value of around $5.3 billion, fell nearly 12 percent in January-March, mirroring the decline on the sector index (.BSEAUTO: Quote, Profile, Research and trailing a 5.2 percent fall for the benchmark (.BSESN: Quote, Profile, Research.

($1=41.2 rupees)

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