India’s Amara Raja Batteries Q4 profit jumps on strong auto, 5G demand – EQ Mag
BENGALURU : India’s Amara Raja Batteries Ltd reported a 41% jump in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, powered by strong demand from auto makers and accelerated 5G rollouts in the telecoms space.
Consolidated net profit after tax rose to 1.39 billion rupees ($17.00 million) in the quarter, compared with 988.5 million rupees a year ago, the Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh-based company said in an exchange filing.
Amara Raja, which caters to automotive and industrial demand for power storage, manufactures lead-acid batteries, with Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto among its clients.
Auto ancillary companies benefit from strong automobile sales, which steadily improved during the quarter supported by easing chip shortages, festive demand and fervent pre-buying before tighter fuel emission norms are set in place.
Consolidated revenue from operations rose more than 11% to 24.29 billion rupees, the maker of Amaron batteries said.
An accelerated pace of 5G rollouts across the country has also improved demand for the company’s industrial battery segment, which caters to telecoms equipment manufacturers and other industry segments including power, oil and gas.
The company’s board of directors recommended a final dividend of 3.20 rupees.
However, Amara Raja Batteries’ total expenses rose about 7% to 22.13 billion rupees during the quarter.
Earlier this month, bigger rivals Eveready Industries posted a smaller loss, while Exide Industries missed Q4 profit estimates on higher raw material costs.
Shares of Amara Raja Batteries closed 0.1% higher ahead of results on Tuesday.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
Source: Reuters
