India’s Maruti Suzuki sees 21% rise in Q1 sales

Maruti Suzuki India announced that it has registered net sales of USD 1,114.5 mln in the first quarter of 2008-09, a growth of 20.9% compared to the same period last year.
Net profit during the first quarter of 2008-09 was USD 110 mln as USD 117.5 mln during the same period of the last fiscal year. However, the two figures are not comparable owing to the additional impact of USD 14.5 mln from the new depreciation policy introduced in Q4 of 2007-08.
Maruti Suzuki also posted a 13.5% growth in total sales during the first quarter of 2008-09. Domestic sales grew by 12.1%, led by Swift, Swift DZire and WagonR. The domestic sales volume was 180,093 units.
In the A-3 segment (sedans), the company grew faster than the industry and increased its share in the segment to 26.4% in the first quarter of 2008-09, compared to 21.2% in the first quarter of last fiscal.
Further, the company exported 12,491 units in the first quarter of 2008-09, against 9,065 units in the first quarter of the previous year, marking a growth of 37.8%.
Maruti Suzuki India also announced that it sold 58,543 vehicles in July, as against 57,909 sold in July last year. During the month, while the A-3 segment continued to show strong growth, the A-2 segment (small cars) sales held ground despite the adverse macro economic situation. Compared to the sales in July 2007, Maruti's volume in the domestic A-3 segment grew by 36.8% over July 2007.