Tata Motors sees weak 1st quarter as lockdowns hit profits

India’s Tata Motors Ltd mentioned on Monday it expects a drastically weak 2021 initial quarter, as it grapples with worsening need and coronavirus-induced lockdowns in a number of international locations the place it sells its luxury Jaguar Land Rover automobiles.

Product sales at JLR, which rakes in most of the firm’s income, ended up intensely impacted during the quarter as some of its important marketplaces these types of as China and Europe went into lockdowns, even though also disrupting source chains.

The pandemic has been a main blow to Tata Motors which experienced made development on its turnaround prepare to make improvements to JLR income in critical marketplaces. The company in January warned the virus outbreak could effects earnings at the JLR device.

Tata Motors’ consolidated net reduction was 98.94 billion rupees ($1.30 billion) for the fourth quarter ended March 31, compared with a gain of 11.17 billion rupees a calendar year earlier.

JLR retail unit sales slumped approximately 31% during the quarter, and Tata Motors stated outlook for the device stays unsure.

The firm’s whole profits from operations fell 27.7% to 624.93 billion rupees in the described quarter as its property current market, India, presently going through a bruising slowdown in demand went into a lockdown due to the pandemic.