Ashok Leyland Races Past Estimates With 71% Profit Growth 

Ashok Leyland Ltd.’s shares gained after the commercial vehicle maker reported a 71 percent jump in profit in the July to September quarter, beating street estimates.

Net profit rose to Rs 294 crore from Rs 172 crore in the same quarter last year, according to the company’s results posted on the exchanges. Analysts tracked by Bloomberg had pegged the profit at Rs 262 crore. The company had incurred an exceptional loss of Rs 157 crore in the July to September quarter last year, due to the loss on sale of investments in joint ventures and subsidiaries.

Total income fell 6.9 percent to Rs 4,912 crore from Rs 5,274 crore, while other income stood at Rs 31.6 crore. Expenditure on raw materials fell 21 percent to Rs 2,567 crore, taking total expenses down 5.1 percent to Rs 4,501 crore.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation declined 13.9 percent to Rs 537 crore while EBITDA margin dipped to 10.9 percent from 11.8 percent.

Sales Performance

The truck-maker's sales dropped 10.4 percent during the quarter to 33,446 units. While sales of light commercial vehicles rose 8 percent to 8,100 units, sale of medium and heavy commercial vehicles fell 15.1 percent to 25,346 units.

Ashok Leyland shares rose as much as 2.9 percent to Rs 91.1 after the announcement of the second quarter earnings.