Popular Vehicles & Services Q4 PAT Rises 40% to Rs 20 Cr

Mumbai, May 29 (PTI) Automotive dealership firm Popular Vehicles & Services Ltd on Wednesday reported 40 per cent year-on-year increase in Profit After Tax (PAT) at Rs 20.1 crore for the March quarter.

The Kochi-headquartered company had posted a PAT of Rs 14.3 crore in the fourth quarter of FY23, according to a statement.

Total income grew 4.6 per cent at Rs 1,372 crore as against Rs 1,311 crore in Q4 FY23, it said.

The company said the total vehicles retailed during March quarter FY24 declined 10.2 per cent to 11,116 units as against 12,372 units in the year-ago period.

The company, which is the country's second listed auto dealership chain, also said that out of net IPO proceeds of Rs 230 crore, Rs 192 crore, supposed to be used for debt reduction, has already been deployed in FY24.

Popular Vehicles & Services got listed on exchanges on March 19 this year.

"In FY24, the sales volume, excluding service business de-grew by 4 per cent, however the revenue increased by 14 per cent. The growth was led by sales of premium vehicles. The luxury segment revenue doubled this year. This growth is inspite facing multiple external challenges such as floods in Tamil Nadu in December last year and non-availability of cars for one of our OEM in Q4," said Naveen Philip, Promoter and MD of the company.

The services and repairs and spare parts distribution businesses did exceedingly well this year with a volume growth of 10 per cent and revenue growth of 21 per cent, he said, adding this is a high margin business with higher contribution to EBITDA.

"We expect to grow this business with financial prudence, in the years to come leading to margin expansion at consolidated level," Philip stated.

"As a part of our strategy to focus on non-Kerala markets, we recently inaugurated a new 3S (sales, service and spares) facility exclusively offering Bharat Benz vehicles in Maharashtra. This is our fifth touch point in this state. This will further increase our non-Kerala revenues which stood at 38 per cent in FY24. We will look to diversify geographically in the coming years," he added.

Going ahead, the company believes that the growth will be driven by sale of premium and electric vehicles, he said adding that this strategy has helped the company to successfully diversify and expand the product offerings across vehicle spectrum.