Maruti Suzuki net profit in third quarter falls 17 per cent at Rs 1,489 crore

The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Friday reported 17.21 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 1,489.3 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2018. The company has posted a net profit of Rs 1,799 crore in the same period of fiscal. Total income during the October-December quarter under review stood at Rs 20,585.6 crore as against Rs 19,528.1 crore in the year-ago period. The company sold a total of 4,28,643 vehicles during the quarter, a marginal decline of 0.6 per cent over the same period in the previous year, MSI said in a statement. Maruti Suzuki shares were trading 6.85 per cent down at Rs 6,555.40 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Recently, the company reported a figure of selling more than four lakh Vitara Brezza in just three years of its launch.

In the ongoing fiscal, the company said, the model has grown at an average of 7 per cent with a monthly average of sales of 14,675 units.

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"The benchmark success of Vitara Brezza with over 4 lakh customers in less than three years is a testimony of the customers' increasing preference towards the refreshed design and innovative features of the compact SUV," Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) R S Kalsi said in a statement.

The Vitara Brezza was launched in March 2016. Out of the total sales of the model so far, MSI said the automatic gear shift (AGS) variant has accounted for 20 per cent after its introduction in May 2018.

As on date, the Vitara Brezza commands 44.1 per cent market share in the compact SUV segment, MSI claimed. The segment stood at around 3 lakh units in April-January period of the ongoing fiscal.