Maruti Suzuki net profit rises 16% in Q4, Rs 75 per share dividend declared

India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki posted a near 16 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 1,709 crore for the fourth quarter ended on March 31, 2017. Its profit for the financial year 2016/17 surged 37 per cent to Rs 7,337 crore, boosted by strong volume growth and better product mix.

Maruti sold 414,439 vehicles during the quarter, 15 per cent higher over the same quarter in the previous year. Sales revenue for the fourth quarter rose 20.3 per cent to Rs 18,005 crore.
 
Its volumes for the fiscal grew 9.8 per cent to 1.56 million units, the highest for the company. A part of the production - a little over 10,000 units - came from its parent's new factory in Gujarat. The company's cumulative revenue for the year grew over 18 per cent to Rs 66,909 crore.

Addressing the media, R.C. Bhargava, Chairman of Maruti Suzuki, said, "We are looking at a decent increase in volumes as we move ahead and leave a challenging year behind. We managed to navigate demonetisation and other obstacles to post our highest-ever volumes, to grind a decent dividend of Rs 75 per share of face value."

The company had paid a dividend of Rs 35 per share in 2015-16.

Maruti said that the rise in commodity prices and adverse forex movement took away part of the gains brought by the increase in volumes, rising realisation due to product mix and other cost reduction initiatives. The company posted net average realisation of Rs 3.97 lakh per unit sold in the domestic market.

"Growth in volumes, increase in share of the company's higher segment models, benefits due to full capacity utilisation, higher non-operating income and several initiatives for cost reduction contributed to increase in profit. At the same time, increase in commodity prices and adverse forex movement partially impacted the annual financial performance," the company said in a statement.

Maruti, which enjoys 47 per cent share in domestic passenger vehicle market, saw its stock price zoom to a new high of Rs 6,444 (BSE) ahead of the results. At 1.50 pm, it was trading at Rs 6,385, down 0.34 per cent.