FILE PHOTO: A Tata Tigor car is pictured at the assembly line inside the Tata Motors car plant in Sanand, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, August 7, 2018. REUTERS/Amit Dave
BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s Tata Motors Ltd (TAMO.NS) on Monday forecast a significantly weak first quarter and said it was reviewing all its businesses to save 60 billion rupees ($789 million) to ride out the disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
The dour projection comes as the automaker posted a consolidated net loss of 98.94 billion rupees ($1.30 billion) for the reported quarter, as lockdowns across its markets ravaged sales, including at JLR.
The company is reviewing all its businesses, including exiting those that do not add strategic value and reducing its capital expenditure for the current fiscal year, Chief Financial Officer PB Balaji told reporters.
“COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted our results … the business is taking hard calls to navigate this crisis,” Balaji said.
The pandemic has been a major blow to Tata Motors as the company had made progress on its turnaround plan to improve JLR sales in key markets.
The company added 1 billion pounds to its cost-cutting target at JLR to 5 billion pounds ($6.27 billion) for the year ending in March 2021.
Total revenue from operations fell 27.7% to 624.93 billion rupees in the first quarter ended March 31 as its home market, India, already facing a bruising slowdown in demand went into a lockdown due to the pandemic.
Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Sriraj Kalluvila