Ashok Leyland, Indian flagship of the Hinduja Group, reported a 17% decline in its profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 751 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, 2023.

The company had posted a PAT of Rs 901 crore in the same quarter year ago. Meanwhile, the company's revenue for Q4 grew 33% at Rs 11,626 crore in Q4 FY23 compared to Rs 8,744 crore for the same period last year. During the quarter under review, the company's EBITDA stood at 11% as against 8.9% last year.

“Q4 FY 22 witnessed one-off exceptional gains of Rs 468 crore. Normalised Q4 PAT would be at Rs 433 crores (Rs. 901 – 468 crore) as against Q4 FY23 PAT of Rs 751 crore, current year PAT is higher by 73%. This impact is relevant for full-year PAT also. FY23 PAT of Rs 1,380 crore will be higher than last year normalised PAT of Rs 74 crore (Rs 542-468 crore) by 17.65 times. Better performance in FY23 is due to an increase in revenue and consequent improvement in EBITDA margins," said Gopal Mahadevan, Whole-time Director and Chief Financial Officer, Ashok Leyland said. 

Ashok Leyland’s truck market share for Q4 FY23 has improved to 32.7% as compared to 30.6 % in Q4 FY22. Bus market share for Q4 FY23 has improved to 27.1 % as against 26.4 % for the same period last year.

Ashok Leyland's LCV volume was up 18% in Q4 FY23 to 18,840 units as compared to 15,971 units in the same period year ago.

According to Dheeraj Hinduja, Executive Chairman of Ashok Leyland the CV industry is buoyant due to favourable macroeconomic factors and healthy demand from the end-user industries. 

"This trend is expected to continue alongside growth in core sectors such as construction and mining, agriculture, and an increased capital outlay for infrastructure projects, and pent-up replacement demand. The focus on International Operations, Defence, Power Solutions, and Parts businesses will continue to balance the volatility of our core business," he added. 

With momentum gradually picking up in electric vehicles, Hinduja further said, Switch Mobility is well poised to complement the developments at Ashok Leyland across a spectrum of alternate propulsion systems.