BENGALURU -- Tata Motors reported a quarterly loss that nearly doubled, hit by an ongoing slump in car demand in Tata's home market of India, as well as plant shutdowns and delays at its UK-based Jaguar Land Rover unit due to Britain's planned exit from the European Union.
Tata Motors lost 36.98 billion rupees ($535.93 million) in the quarter ended June 30, compared to a loss of 19.02 billion rupees a year ago. Revenue fell 7.7 percent to 608.30 billion rupees.
Jaguar Land Rover had a pretax loss of 395 million pounds ($493 million) before exceptional items during the quarter, compared with a 264-million pound loss in the year earlier period, Tata Motors said in a statement on Thursday. Quarterly revenues that declined 2.8 percent to 5.1 billion pounds.
Global retail sales of Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles fell 11.6 percent to 128,615 for the quarter. However, JLR had record sales in its UK home market, up 2.6 percent year-on-year, while China sales rose in June compared with the prior month.
The results mainly reflect lower revenue resulting from the weaker market conditions, Tata Motors said. Additional plant shutdown time resulting from Brexit contingency planning and delays in WLTP certification also contributed to the lower sales and profits, it said.
Tata Motors Chief Financial Officer P.B. Balaji said during a conference call that JLR was seeing a pickup in sales in key market China, "As far as JLR is concerned, we are seeing China stabilizing, and we expect to see growth from here on as far as Chinese business is concerned."
JLR has been one of the biggest victims of a slowing Chinese car market, with its deliveries to dealerships plunging for 12 consecutive months.
Adding to the challenges is renewed uncertainty in the UK, where new Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to deliver Brexit in less than 100 days, even if that means exiting the European Union without a divorce deal.
"Should there be an event of a no deal, then that's something we should be ready for," Balaji said. "We already had it all ready for March 31, and therefore we will re-activate those plans."
Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth said the automaker's turnaround program will help the company to return to profit this fiscal year. "We expect to see the impact of growing demand for new models such as the Range Rover Evoque, Discovery Sport and Jaguar XE," he said.
