United Motors Group profits soar to Rs. 968 m in first Quarter
The United Motors Lanka group achieved aprofit after tax of Rs. 968
million in the first quarter of 2012 in comparison to Rs. 411 million
achieved in the same period last year,an increase of 135%. Group
turnover increased by 67.5% to 6.2 billion in comparison to 3.7 billion
achieved in the 1st quarter of 2011/2012.
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United Motors showroom |
Commenting on the Group's performance, Chanaka Yatawara, CEO /
Executive Directormentioned that the performance is due to a combination
of factors including, a diverse portfolio of vehicles including several
brands of commercial vehicles which are not affected by the tax
increase, income from the permit operation, healthy margin management by
changing the marketing mix, low borrowings due to improved reserve
situation and tight costmanagement. The UML group net asset per share as
at June 30, 2012 rose to Rs. 95.21.
He however went on to say that the remaining 3 quarters would be very
much more challenging due to theweaker rupee, restrictions imposed on
credit granted by leasing and financial institutions, the increased tax
on vehicles etc. Keeping these concerns in mind the group will pay more
attention to expanding its after sales service capabilities to cater to
the large amount of vehicles sold by the group in 2010 and 2011.
The workshop and branches are now going through an expansion process
to accommodate the 12,000 units we put into the market in the last two
years. We are confident that if we have the facilities and resources in
place, we would be able to attract a significant number of these new
customers to patronize our after sales facilities, which should
compensate to some extent for the volume drop expected from vehicle
sales.
"We are also expanding our assembly operation as it has become more
feasible to market assembled products due to the tax concessions offered
versusthe higher taxation applied on imported vehicles."
"The assembly plant is expected to be ready to increase its capacity
of the 1.3liter petrol Nomad compact SUV by October", he said. |
