India's top vehicle maker Tata Motors posted a 41% jump in quarterly net profit, beating forecasts, thanks to strong sales of its British luxury icons, Jaguar and Land Rover.
The company said its global operations, including Jaguar and Land Rover, showed a consolidated net profit of 34.06 billion rupees ($681m) for the three months to the end of December, up from 24.2 billion a year earlier. The profit for the third financial quarter outpaced consensus market forecasts of 26 billion rupees.
Revenues of Tata Motors, part of the giant steel-to-software Tata Group controlled by billionaire Ratan Tata, climbed 45% to 452 billion rupees for the quarter.
Earnings of India's top vehicle maker by revenue were also buoyed by better domestic sales. Indian sales of cars and sports-utility vehicles jumped 33% to 85,322 units. Local sales of trucks and buses climbed 15.5% to 131,220 units.
Rising disposable incomes and launches of new models have boosted Tata Motors' domestic sales.
For the quarter to December, the Jaguar-Land Rover business had a profit of £440m sterling, surging 57% from £275m a year earlier, as demand for the prestige cars improved across key markets.
The company, which is also the maker of the world's cheapest car, the Nano, bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor in 2008 for $2.3 billion as part of plans by Tata Motors to expand its reach beyond Asia.
The deal vaulted Tata Motors from a commercial vehicle and small-car maker to a global player with luxury brands in its range of offerings.
