India’s Tata Motors reported wider losses for the July-September quarter Tuesday as the coronavirus pandemic hammered demand in domestic and international markets.
The Mumbai-headquartered firm, which owns British luxury brand Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), announced a consolidated net loss of 3.14 billion rupees ($42.61 million) for the quarter ending September 30 against a loss of 2.17 billion rupees a year earlier.
JLR sales were down nearly 12% compared with the same period the previous year, as the virus crisis and uncertainty over Brexit weakened demand.
Tata Motors’ revenues fell by 18.2% to 535.3 billion rupees, the firm said.
The company said however that it expected sales to improve as lockdowns ease and supply chain bottlenecks are removed.
“We remain hopeful for a full recovery … by end of this fiscal year aligned to the overall improvement in the economy,” chief executive Guenter Butschek said in a statement.
Indian carmakers were struggling with low demand due to an economic slowdown and lack of liquidity through 2019, before the virus and a months-long lockdown dealt a sharp blow to Asia’s third-largest economy.
Tata Motors shares closed 1.5 percent higher in Mumbai ahead of the earnings announcement.
– AFP