Bosch India Registered 13 per cent growth

Bangalore, Mar 06(UNI) Bosch Limited, the largest auto component manufacturer in the country has registered a net profit of Rs 609.20 crore, an increase of 14.2 per cent than the previous year despite witnessing a sluggish trend in the automotive market Bosch Limited, Managing Director Mr V K Vishwanathan,, said here today.

Announcing the company's financial results for the year 2007, Mr Lakshminarayan said that the company posted a net sales of Rs 4280 crores in 2007 with a growth of 13 per cent over the previous year and the profit before tax (PBT) stood at Rs 856 crores which is 20 per cent of net sales and the profit after tax recorded at Rs 609.20 crores.

He also said that the company board which met here today has decided to pay a dividend of 150 per cent which amount to an earning of Rs 25 per share against the face value of Rs 10.

Expressing satisfaction over the performance of the company during 2007 Mr Lakshminarayan said that the company despite witnessing a sluggish market trend in the Automotive segment, Bosch India managed to maintain its growth over the previous years.

Stating that Bosch India had registered a growth of over 27 per cent in terms of sales in 2006 it was reduced to 13 per cent due to volatile trend seen in the Automotive market.

Mr Vishwanathan said that the year 2007 saw a significant slowdown in certain segments of the automotive market notably tractors, two and three wheelers and heavy comercial vehicles. "We have grown in sales by 13 per cent in 2007 over 2006 which is more than the market growth, this growth was however below our expectations due to this slowdown" he said.

Presenting the sector wise breakup of the company, Mr Vishwanathan said that the diesel business grew by 12 per cent, starter and generator business by 22 per cent and gasoline by five per cent. Apart from achieving growth in the traditional business areas, the company also focused on new growth products like batteries, wiper blades and diagnostics.

On the export front, Mr Vishwanathan said that in 2007 the company exported goods worth of Rs 573 crores, an increase of over seven per cent than previous year. The growing export market is strong indicator of the customer confidence that Bosch enjoys in the overseas market.

He opined that the sharp increase in the banks interest rate had a negative impact on the automotive market. The sales of tractors, three, two wheeler and heavy commercial vehicle segment witnessed sluggish growth which also impacted Bosch, he said.

Expressing confidence, he said that the recent reduction in the excise duty from 16 to 12 per cent, would boost the Automotive sector. Mr Vishwanathan, however, feared that the sharp increase in oil prices may off-set the benefit of the cut in excise duty.

He said that Bosch which believes in sustaining the growth by investing more on technology improvement and Research and Development had planned to put in more than Rs 400 crores this year also. If automotive market improves, the company also has plans to leverage its employee strength from the present 18000 to 20000.

Bosch enjoys over 78 per cent of Indian market share in the segment of diesel engine, and 30 per cent in automotive After market and Gasoline systems. Bosch also enjoys significant market share in the manufacture of power tools and security systems.

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