Tata Motors posts surprise 96 per cent dip in Q3 net profit

An over Rs 710-crore insurance claim for the 2015 Chinese shipyard blast helped Tata Motors remain profitable marginally in the December quarter as its bleeding domestic business reported a 10-fold jump in losses, yanking down group profit by a huge 96.22 per cent at Rs 111.6 crore.

The country’s largest auto company and the second best profit centre for the Tata Group had posted a net profit of Rs 2,952.67 crore in the December 2015 quarter.

The bottomline was also dragged down by near 500 bps dip in margins at its British cash-cow JLR, which narrowed its profit by a hefty 62 per cent at £167 million from £440 million a year ago, Group CFO C. Ramakrishnan told reporters.

Despite red-marks all over the business, managing director and cjief executive Guenter Butschek sounded bullish about the future of the company and described the third quarter as “very good show”, citing the revival of the its struggling passenger car business which has outgrown the industry by three times.