Indian carmaker Maruti Suzuki's revenue slows to near 3-year low, shares slide
Updates shares, adds revenue milestone in paragraph 1, margins in paragraph 8
Oct 29 (Reuters) - Maruti Suzuki MRTI.NS, India's top carmaker by sales, reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth in nearly three years on Tuesday, hurt by low demand for small cars and bigger discounts, which weighed on margins and sent its shares sliding 6%.
The 'Brezza' SUV manufacturer's standalone revenue from operations rose 0.4% to 372.03 billion rupees ($4.43 billion) for the July-September quarter, while analysts expected it to rise 1.4% to 375.59 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.
The growth in revenue wasMaruti Suzuki's slowest since it last reported a fall 11 quarters ago.
Its profit, meanwhile, dropped for the first time in 11 quarters, falling 17% to 30.69 billion rupees, largelydue to a deferred tax liability of 8.38 billion rupees to account for the government retroactively removing long-term tax benefits for investments before April 2023.
However, excluding the tax liability, profit increased 6.3% year-on-year.
Maruti Suzuki kicks off second-quarter earnings for the world's third-largest car market, where sales to domestic dealers declined for the first time in over two years between July and September.
Lukewarm demand for new cars has forced manufacturers to moderate dispatches to dealers and dish out higher discounts to attract buyers as showroom owners grapple with rising levels of unsold cars.
The higher discounts also led to a drop in margins on operating earnings before interest and taxes to 10.3% for the second quarter from 11.1% a year ago, the company, which is majority-owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor 7269.T, said.
Maruti's overall sales volumes in the quarter fell 2% year-on-year, hurt by a continued drop in the sales of small cars - which is its biggest segment and comprises 38% of the total- while sales of its high-margin utility vehicles were little changed.
Small care sales dropped 13% in the quarter.
($1 = 84.0530 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Sonia Cheema
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