Amara Raja Batteries records Rs 661 crore profit in FY2020, up 37%

Amara Raja Batteries, one of India’s leading industrial and automotive battery majors, has reported a net profit of Rs 660.82 crore for FY2020, a YoY growth of 37 percent  (Rs 483.49  crores). The company reported revenue of Rs 6,839.46 crore for FY2020 as compared to Rs 6,793.11 crore in FY2019.

For Q4 FY2020, the company reported revenues of Rs 1,581.39 crore, up by one percent (Q4 FY2019: Rs 1,566.73 crore) and PAT of Rs. 136.65 crore, a growth of 14.5 percent (Q4FY2019: Rs 119.34 crore).

Amara Raja says that its automotive business division was able to substantially overcome the demand slowdown in the automotive OE segment aided by significant traction in volume growth in domestic replacement market and exports under challenging market conditions.

Despite market disruptions towards the fiscal year end due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown restrictions, both the automotive brands, Amaron and Powerzone, continued strong growth momentum across vehicle segments. However, growth in home UPS segment has been moderate as the seasonal demand for inverter batteries was severely impacted by the lockdown restrictions in March.

Furthermore, the company says despite the adverse impact of Covid-19 on the year-end sales and demand compression in telecom sector during the year, the Industrial Battery Business has improved its performance in FY2020. This was achieved through efficient after sales service, customer relationship management and consistent product performance of its flagship brands PowerStack, Quanta and QRS Series, Amaron Volt batteries. The UPS Business continued to grow on the back of strong performance in the Data Centre Market.

The company claims that its Quanta HWS series batteries became the preferred battery for all the major UPS OEMs. The volumes grew in all other segments of the business, barring the telecom segment. Export sales in industrial battery division sustained momentum registering strong growth in Middle east and Africa while South East Asia sales have been subdued.

Jayadev Galla, vice-chairman and MD, Amara Raja Batteries said, “FY2020 saw us performing strongly against odds in the overall business environment and helped us emerge stronger. The automotive sector is dealing with a lot of challenges due to regulatory changes, technology shifts and demand uncertainty due to COVID-19 lockdown. However, accelerated digital adoption and increased data usage by public during the lockdown period also resulted in silver lining in telecom sector after many years of uncertainty and demand slow down. It is early to comment on the medium- and long-term impact of the overall health and economic crisis caused by Covid-19. We are closely monitoring the emerging situation and have put in place robust risk management and agile response mechanism to recalibrate our strategic growth plans.”

S Vijayanand, CEO, Amara Raja Batteries said, “ARBL’s category leadership, continued focus on innovation and strong customer portfolio, position us well for 2020 and beyond. The company has taken up many initiatives to deal with the global health crisis caused by Covid-19. All essential product and service delivery to key customer segments were carried out uninterrupted during the lock down phase. The company’s strong cash flows and healthy liquidity position is of great support to navigate the current crisis.”

“A complete set of new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are designed and put in place across work locations to safe guard employee health and safety. The company returned to partial operations during the month of May and continue to ramp up production, sales and service activities in the recent weeks. We would like to appreciation and gratitude to employees, customers, channel partners, suppliers and all other stake holders for their commitment and support in dealing with the current challenges,” added Vijayanand.