INDIA’S largest carmaker Tata Motors reported a three-fold increase in quarterly profits on Mon- day (30), boosted by strong sales of luxury British unit Jaguar Land Rover and a one-off insurance payment.
Consolidated net profit for the three months to the end of March 2016 rose to `51.8 billion (£527 million) from `17.2 billion a year ago, the Mumbai- based company said.
That was well above the estimate in a survey of 25 analysts by Bloomberg News who predicted that the car manufacturer would report net profits of `35.3 billion for the fourth quarter.
Tata said its profits had been lifted by strong worldwide sales of Jaguar Land Rover as well as money recouped from a massive chemical blast in China’s Tianjin last year that killed 161 people.
“Exceptional items for the quarter includes further insurance and other recoveries of `555 crores (`5.55 billion) on account of the vehicles damaged at Tianjin Port explosion in Jaguar Land Rover business,” Tata said.
Tata said in November it had lost 5,800 cars in the explosion last August.
Tata Motors is hugely reliant on revenues from JLR, which it bought for $2.3 billion from Ford in 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis.
It said JLR net sales jumped by 19 per cent.
