Amara Raja Q1 PAT up 90pc, net revenues 70pc

Kolkata, Jul 28: Industrial and Automotive Battery major Amara Raja Batteries Limited has posted a net profit of Rs 17.90 crore in the first quarter of 2006-07, a growth of 90 per cent.

The Profit Before Tax of the company stood at Rs.27.46 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal.

Announcing the company's Q1 results, Managing Director Jayadev Galla said,''Buoyant growth in automotive, telecom and UPS segments have driven our growth this quarter. Our capacity expansion, which has been growing in phases, has allowed us to garner a good portion of these growing sectors.

Both industrial and automotive battery businesses have benefited from this.

Growth in Industrial batteries has been fuelled by greater share of business from telecom customers and the growth in volumes of UPS batteries.

In automotive segment, the company continued to increase OE volumes which enhance its market-share in the OE space. The company currently has a pan-India sales and service network with 152 franchisees, 120 PitStops and over 15000 active retailers.

Amara Raja would continue to focus on increasing export volumes both in Industrial and Automotive, he said.

Company Chairman Ramachandra N Galla said, ''This fiscal will witness the positive impact of two new initiatives we have launched.

The first one is the launch of our two wheeler batteries, scheduled for Jan 2008. Our plan is to be a technology leader in this segment too.'' For the full period ending March 2007, ARBL had recorded 63.8 per cent growth in gross sales at Rs.712 billion, compared Rs.446 billion FY ending March 2006.

UNI