Escorts profit jumps 40.7% to Rs 484.91 crore in FY19, board recommends dividend of Rs 2.5 per share

Escorts, the country's leading tractor manufacturing company, on Tuesday reported highest-ever standalone profit after taxes (PAT) at Rs 484.91 crore for the financial year 2018-19 as compared to Rs 344.72 crore reported in the last fiscal, registering a year-on-year growth of 40.7 per cent.

"Standalone revenue of the farm equipment manufacturer jumped 23.5 per cent to Rs 6,196 crore versus Rs 5,016 crore in the previous year," Escorts said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Escorts' balance sheet showed that its operating profit (EBITDA) surged 32 per cent to Rs 733 crore in FY19 as against Rs 557 crore in FY18. The operating margin stood at 11.8 per cent in FY19 versus 10.8 per cent in FY18.

Profit for quarter ended March 2019 was up by 7.8 percent at Rs 121.4 crore as against Rs 112.5 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The revenue of the company stood at Rs 1,631.7 crore in Q4FY19 from Rs 1,436.10 crore in Q4FY18, registering a growth of 13.6 per cent.

The operating profit for the March quarter climbed 9.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 189.8 crore. 

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Commenting on the results, Escorts Chairman Nikhil Nanda said, "Escorts is committed to provide state of the art technology & unique engineering solutions for mechanized and innovative agriculture solutions, well supported infrastructure & safe rail transport. We will continue to bring in new technologies with a blend of frugal engineering and global technology collaborations for domestic and global markets, enabled by strong product mix and expanded distribution network. Our emerging businesses like crop solutions rental services, aggregation of tractors for wider usage will provide strong impetus and farmer access to modern agriculture practices."

Segment wise, tractor sales was up by 19.9 per cent at 96,412 tractors in FY19 as against 80,417 tractors in previous fiscal. For fourth quarter ended March 31, 2019, tractor volumes stood at 25,136 units up by 6.7 per cent on y-o-y basis.

Construction equipment sales stood at 5,544 units up by 23.6 per cent as against 4,486 units in the previous fiscal. Railway division sales surges 37.5 per cent to Rs 394.1 crore as against Rs 286.6 crore in the previous fiscal.

The company's board has recommended a dividend of Rs 2.5 per share of face value Rs 10, for 2018-19 as against the dividend of Rs 2 per share of face value of Rs 10 in 2017-18.

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In a separate development, the board has appointed Sunil Kant Munjal as independent directors for a period of 5 years on the board of the company, subject to the approval of the shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting. It has also re-appointed D.J. Kakalia as Independent Directors and Nitasha Nanda as Whole-time Director for a period of 5 years, subjected to requisite approval.

Meanwhile, Escorts share price closed at Rs 645 apiece, down 2.96 per cent, on the BSE on Tuesday.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar