Last Tuesday, Pak-Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) announced that its net profits fell by 53%, from Rs. 5.84 billion to Rs. 2.77 billion, compared to the same tiem period last year. Though, the company still managed to maintain 50 percent of the auto industry’s market share.
In 2015, the earnings per share (EPS) for the company were Rs.70.99 which decreased to Rs. 33.69 in 2016.
There was also a drastic decrease in the final cash dividend that the company announced. It fell from Rs.15 to Rs.5.50 per share.
At the Pakistan Stock Exchange, on Tuesday, the benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share Index rose by 0.66% at 49,020 points while the Pak-Suzuki stock price closed up 0.12% at Rs. 666.85.
The company actually sold 27,254 units during the last quarter of 2016 which is a decrease of 26% year-on-year.
The Punjab government’s Apna Rozgar Taxi scheme resulted in a 21% growth year-on-year for Suzuki but after the normalization of the effects of these inflated sales volumes, the numbers are down again. Suzuki assembled 50,000 units of Suzuki Bolan and Suzuki Ravi for the taxi scheme which resulted in the extra sales in 2015.
The company’s overall sales were down by 18% in 2016 as compared to 2015. However, if taxi scheme sales are excluded 2015, the sales were actually 21% higher in 2016. Suzuki sold a total of 109,758 units in 2016.
Suzuki Wagon R emerged as the most impressive variant as far as growth is concerned. The sales volumes reached 13,209 units in 2016, up 75% year-on-year.
The fall in earnings came as a result of the 18% decline in overall sales volumes year-over-year. There was a 44% drop in sales of Suzuki Bolan and Ravi units mainly due to the termination of the taxi scheme.
According to JS Research report, higher input costs due to a 10% increase in the value of Japanese yen against dollar and nearly 16% increase in the cost of steel, the gross margins dropped 398 basis points to 9.6% in 2016.
