COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Telco's Q3 loss at Rs 215.8 million on the lower side

Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Limited continued to remain in the red during the current financial year, though the net loss suffered by the company has declined marginally during the third quarter of 1998-99.

The company has posted a net loss of Rs 215.8 million during the quarter ended December 31, 1998 as against Rs 276.6 million in the previous year.

According to Telco, the improved performance in the financial performance was mainly on account of the favourable impact of higher sales volume and continuing improvement in operating margins, helped by cost reduction initiatives.

The third quarter of the current financial year witnessed an improvement of 14.7 per cent in the company's overall sales volume and 9.4 per cent in value over the immediately preceding quarter. The growth in the sale of commercial vehicles from 27,820 to 31,908 during this quarter over the previous one is on account of improving freight rates. However, a robust growth in commercial vehicle sector will depend upon the overall economic revival, of which signs are yet to be seen.

The company's overall sales volume for the first nine months of the current year was 85,132 vehicles compared to 115,587 vehicles in the corresponding period of 1997-98, a drop of 26.4 per cent. The company's total income for the first nine months at Rs 42.85 billion was 20.8 per cent lower than the Rs 54.12 billion recorded in the previous year.

The company has received an overwhelming response from the market by way of an order book of over 115,000 cars for Tata Indica. The board of directors of the company in its board meeting of December 22, 1998 approved the proposal to transfer, by way of sale, the company's construction equipment business unit, to its subsidiary Telco Construction Equipment Company Limited, subject to approval from its shareholders. The new subsidiary will manufacture and market the entire range of construction equipment and related services with international alliances.

UNI

Business news