Maruti Suzuki India Limited (NSE:MARUTI)
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Apr 30, 2026, 3:29 PM IST
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Q4 23/24

Apr 26, 2024

Operator

and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Q4 FY 2024 Earnings Conference Call of Maruti Suzuki India Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pranav Ambaprasad. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Pranav Ambaprasad
Department Head of Corporate Strategy, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Thank you, Riya. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, one second. Welcome you all to the Q4 FY 2024 earnings call. May I introduce you to the management team from Maruti Suzuki? Today, we have with us our Chief Investor Relations Officer, Mr. Rahul Bharti, and CFO, Mr. Arnab Roy. Before we begin, may I remind you of the safe harbor. We may be making some forward-looking statements that have to be understood in conjunction with the uncertainty and the risks that the company faces. I'd also like to inform you that the call is being recorded, and the audio recording and the transcript will be available on our website. May please note that in case of any inadvertent error during this live audio call, a transcript will be provided with the corrected information.

The con call will begin with a brief statement on the performance and outlook of our business by Chief Investor Relations Officer, Mr. Rahul Bharti, after which we'll be happy to receive your questions. I would now like to invite our CIRO, Mr. Rahul Bharti. Over to you, sir.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Thanks, Pranav. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us. Today, I'll share some overview of the industry sales performance, followed by the business performance of the company. The passenger vehicle industry for the first time crossed the 4 million sales milestone in financial year 2023-2024, and consequently, India maintained its position as the third-largest PV market in the world. The PV market grew by 8.5%, 8.4% year-on-year in the year 2023-2024, on the back of new SUV launches and improved semiconductor availability. However, this year, the growth was lower than that of last year of 26.7%, owing to the tapering off pent-up demand. Since the last three, four years, there has been a steep shift in consumer preference towards SUVs.

The trend continued in 2023-2024 as well, with SUVs contributing to over 50% of the market. Much of the growth in PV market was contributed by SUVs. The demand for multi-purpose utility vehicles also continued to remain good. However, the share of hatchback segment continued to shrink. In 2023-2024, the share has reduced to 27% from a high of 46% in 2018-2019. This is also reflected in terms of the declining share of first-time buyers in 2023-2024. In terms of powertrain mix, the better availability of CNG vehicles, coupled with increase in CNG infrastructure, helped improve demand for CNG vehicles. The share of CNG vehicles in the industry further expanded to about 15% in the year 2023-2024, compared to 10.4% in 2022-2023.

Hybrid vehicles have seen a good traction, and now the share of hybrid vehicles has increased to about 2%. EV penetration was also at about 2%. Let me now share some of the business highlights for the company. In financial year 2023-2024, the company could achieve several significant milestones. The company crossed the cumulative production milestone of 30 million units since its inception. The company's overall sales volume surpassed 2 million units in this year. The company is first among the PV manufacturers in India to achieve this feat. During 2023-2024, the company recorded its highest ever annual sales of 2,135,323 vehicles, which includes highest ever exports of 281,067 vehicles. The company continued to be the top exporter of passenger vehicles in India for the third consecutive year.

Interestingly, while the exports from the rest of the industry declined by nearly 4% over the previous year, the company could increase its export by about 10%. In 2023-2024, aided by new SUV launches, the company could grow faster than the industry. Fronx SUV has set a new benchmark in the passenger vehicle category by becoming the only new model launch to clock 100,000 sales in ten months. Besides, Grand Vitara became the fastest mid SUV to clock the 100,000 sales milestone. The sales of CNG vehicles increased to over 480,000 units in the year, clocking a growth of about 50% over the previous year. The Intelligent Electric Hybrid technology offered in flagship products such as Grand Vitara and Invicto received excellent response from consumers. Overall, the customer preference towards green vehicles increased significantly during the year.

The share of sales from green vehicles, comprising CNG vehicles, Smart Hybrids, and strong hybrids, increased to 42% from 37% the previous year. On sustainability initiatives, the company increased its captive solar power generation capacity from 26.3 MW in 2022-2023 to 43.2 MW in 2023-2024, and is on course to achieve its target of 48 MW by 2024-2025. In the year 2023-2024, the company achieved a milestone of highest ever dispatches by railways of about 450,000 vehicles. With this, the penetration of dispatches through rail mode in overall dispatches has increased to 21.5%, has increased to 21.5%, sorry, from 17.6% in 2022-2023. Also, the company commissioned India's first automobile in-plant railway siding at its Gujarat plant.

The company, in its growth strategy, Maruti Suzuki 3.0, aims to produce 4 million vehicles a year by 2031, almost double from current levels. On the other hand, given the carbon neutrality requirements, several powertrain technologies like EVs, hybrid, CNG, ethanol, et cetera, will coexist for a reasonably long period of time. Managing this scale and complexity of production with multiple powertrains under different managements would pose several challenges. Greenfield project in Kharkhoda, Haryana, is also a part of the company's ambitious growth plan. Construction is already in progress at Kharkhoda, and the first plant, with annual production capacity of 250,000 units, is on course to be operational in 2025. The company has space to set up four such plants, with total capacity of 1 million units in Kharkhoda.

Recently, in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2024, the company signed an MOU with the Government of Gujarat to set up a new automobile manufacturing facility, a greenfield facility. This is subject to availability of suitable land and other parameters. The annual production capacity expected to become 1 million units, with a total investment amount of about INR 35,000 crore or INR 350 billion. After finalization of land and due approval from MSIL's board, the exact location of the plant will be shared in due course. Coming to the financial results in the quarter and the financial year, the company recorded its highest ever quarterly performance in all the five parameters, that is, overall sales, domestic sales, exports, net sales, and net profit.

The company sold a total of 584,031 vehicles during the quarter, higher by 13.4% compared to the same period previous year. In the quarter, the sales volume in the domestic market stood at 505,291 units, up by 12.2% over that in quarter four, 2023-2024. The sales volume in the export market was at 78,740 units, a growth of 21.7% over exports of 64,719 units in quarter four, 2022-2023. During the quarter, the company registered net sales of INR 366,975 million, against INR 308,218 million in the same period of the previous year.

Net profit for the quarter was at INR 38,778 million, an increase of 47.8% over INR 26,236 million in quarter four, 2022-2023 . This was on account of higher sales volume, favorable commodity prices, cost reduction efforts, and higher non-operating income. Since investors look for a sequential comparison also, I'll share. The overall sales volume grew by 16.5% quarter-on-quarter, and the net sales grew slightly lower by 15.2% quarter-on-quarter, owing to mix and reduced CNG volumes due to supply shortage of a particular component. The share of CNG in domestic sales also reduced sequentially to 26.9% in quarter four from 30.8% in quarter three.

Now, the supply of the CNG component is getting normalized, and we don't see such a constraint going forward. The increase in quarter-on-quarter sales volume resulted in operating leverage benefits of approximately 140 basis points. The sales promotion has come down considerably from INR 23,300 per vehicle in quarter three to INR 14,500 per vehicle in quarter four. However, it may be noted that the discounts are given on retail sales and a portion on wholesale in the books. So the difference in wholesale and retail sales makes quite a difference between actual discounts in the market and what reflects in the P&L. If we see the discount on retail sales basis, it's being almost the same at around INR 18,000 per vehicle.

In quarter four, the retail sales were 398,000 units and lower than the wholesale by around 92,000 units, while in quarter three the retail sales were higher than wholesale by about 114,500 units. The impact of commodities and Forex was largely neutral. Overall, the operating margin expanded from 9.9% to 10.8% sequentially in quarter four. Coming to the highlights of the full year. The company sold a total of 2,135,323 vehicles during the year, a growth of 8.6% over that in 2022-2023. Sales volume in the domestic market stood at 1,852,256 units, and exports at 283,067 units.

The company registered net sales of INR 1,349 billion. The figures are so big, it makes you pause. 1,349 billion in 2023-2024, a growth of 19.9% over the net sales of INR 1,125 billion in 2022-2023. The company achieved a net profit of INR 132 billion, approximately, in 2023-2024, 64% higher than the net profit of INR 80 billion, approximately, in 2022-2023. The company was able to better its net profit on account of higher sales volume, favorable commodity prices, cost reduction efforts, and higher non-operating income. In full financial year also, the company recorded its highest ever annual performance in all the five parameters, and that is overall sales, domestic sales, exports, net sales and net profit.

And finally, on dividend, the board of directors recommended the highest ever dividend of INR 125 per share on a face value of INR 5 per share, compared to INR 90 per share in 2022-2023. And we are now ready to take your questions, feedback, and any other observations that you may have. And before I close, there is a happy news for our investors. In terms of our investor relations, Maruti Suzuki has been awarded the number one position globally among all car manufacturers for its annual integrated report by the League of American Communications Professionals. And of course, we will always like to strive more and take your feedback along the way. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Yogesh Agarwal from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director, HSBC

Yeah. Hi. hi, hi, everyone. So, just firstly, Rahul, I missed in your remarks, there is a 140 basis point one-off in material cost.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Yogesh, could you speak louder, please?

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director, HSBC

Yeah. Can you hear me now?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Now, yes. Kindly go ahead.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director, HSBC

Yeah. Hi. Sorry, so in your prepared remarks, you said 140 basis points of one-off impact in material cost. Is that correct, correct? And what was it regarding?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

See, we had many small one-offs that add up to about 60 basis points, spread all over, on the expensive side. So some are in material cost, some are in, you know, some development kind of costs, which we took up front. CSR had some lumpiness, et cetera, so they add up to about 60 basis points on the expensive side.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director, HSBC

Okay. So 60 basis points is the one-off?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

About 60 basis points.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director, HSBC

Anything related to plant inventory, accretion, decrease, and anything re-related to that?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Plant inventory is normal.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director, HSBC

Okay. The second thing was export. Any outlook there, or what can it be in FY 2025, 2026, and what is the profitability in exports? And thirdly, on safety, NCAP ratings, et cetera, any view, Rahul, on how are Maruti cars now doing versus competition? Because that has been one of the concerns, which keeps coming every now and then.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Okay. Is your first question on exports?

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director, HSBC

So I would ask exports, anything, they've done so well, but anything on the outlook for this year, and what is the profitability like on exports?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

On exports? Okay. I'm not sure I heard you right, but on exports, we did about 283,000 this year. Despite the fact that we've increased substantially over the usual 100,000 per year, that we used to do just about four years ago, we wish to take it further in the future years, and next year we should be doing about 300,000, fairly diversified across markets, across products... And in terms of profitability, it's always a mix, but, you know, it changes with many parameters, mostly Forex rates, et cetera. So it's never stable. At the moment, it is perfectly fine. And your other question was on safety. Yes, we have, I think one good thing that has happened in India is the Bharat NCAP.

The reason it is good is because the government itself is trying to, you know, get into the process so there is no private conflict of interest, and they are testing for safety standards above the minimum compliance level. And let me mention to you, the minimum compliance level is also very close to European standards. So Indian cars are at a good safety level. We have offered about three cars right in the first go to Bharat NCAP for testing. And we are waiting for the star rating results. It may come out any time now. And, of course, we are extremely cautious. We have many safety features in our cars, which, you know, many times go beyond compliance, what we think is important for the customer.

In almost all new models, starting almost one year ago, six airbags has been standard now. So, safety levels are very good in these models.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director, HSBC

Thank you so much, Rahul. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Pramod Kumar from UBS. Please go ahead.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

Yeah, thanks a lot for the opportunity. Just a clarification, Rahul Bharti. You said that all the one-offs across all the external items add up to 60 basis points, right?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Approximately, yes.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

You expect them they will know a one-off. It ideally should mean that next quarter onwards, they should ideally roll back to normalized levels, or there should be a 6 basis points. Everything remaining same, 6 basis points should be the addition to the margins. Is that my understanding right?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

So these one-offs will not exist, but different margin drivers may exist for the next-

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That, that, that I absolutely understand. That I absolutely understand. And coming to the margin drivers, looks like CNG is a pretty significant margin driver because we have seen, fair bit of reversal in the ASP trends quarter- on- quarter, and even the gross margin trends have changed because, correct me if I'm wrong, but there, there were no big adverse movement in the commodity basket quarter- on- quarter, were they, on the, compared to third quarter?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

No, no. Let me explain. The fact that we did less CNG in quarter four-

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

Yeah.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

affected the ASP and the top line.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

Okay.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

We don't comment on segment-wise or product-wise margins. But, we did have these one-offs, which should not happen next year. Of course, the other regular margin drivers, like commodity, Forex, operating leverage, all those will have their, you know, bearing on whatever next year financials come.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

Also now that the CNG, you said the component supply chain disruption has been resolved, where should we look at the penetration in 1Q? Because the retail penetration continues to keep going higher and higher. So I'm just trying to understand, should the CNG penetration pick up meaningfully for you at the wholesale level from 1Q and where that number could be, and where would you see from a FY 2025 perspective? Because you are at 27% for the full year, right, on the domestic dispatches. Where should one put that number for FY 2025, given the improved supply chain? And also, related to that, has the 100,000 capacity on SUVs, particularly basically Ertiga and Brezza, gone live?

If yes, does that also improve your CNG penetration going forward?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Okay, let me try to combine all the parameters. So CNG, this year, we did about 450,000. Next year, we are hoping to do something like 600,000 vehicles in 2024-2025. And you're right, Ertiga is one major car that has a lot of CNG traction in the market. So, the 100,000 capacity at Manesar largely addresses the Ertiga supply bottleneck. And you're right, a good part of the wait wait list is on the Ertiga.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

Okay.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

And, uh-

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

About...

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Yeah. Sorry, sorry.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

30%. And also, like you commented on the third quarter for the fourth quarter profitability, given what all is playing out in terms of CNG ramp up, and clearly the numbers this quarter show that CNG has a big bearing on the profitability as well as the, and the ASP, as you highlighted. So how should one look at profitability going forward, sir, for FY 2025? Because the volume growth will be muted to an extent at the industry level because of the base, and you will have hopefully better growth. But how should one look at margins evolving from here on?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

So, you know, margins are always a consequence of so many parameters, and we are all aware. We have commodity. So steel, as of now, is kind of, I mean, we really don't know. There are news that it may marginally go up in the next financial year. But the two commodities that we are slightly concerned about are copper and aluminum. Copper is about 1% of our net sales, aluminum is about 3% of our net sales. Platinum, palladium, rhodium may slightly be more benign, so we don't know how it emerges, and commodities you can also watch in the market. Steel exposure is about 10%-11% of net sales. Platinum, palladium, rhodium is about 2.5%.

Forex this quarter has been neutral, but it may happen that next year, of course, Forex is anybody's guess. So next year, we have some exposure. We have about 3% direct exposure for import, 2.5% to yen, about 0.5% to dollar. And we have in indirect, which happens with a lag of a quarter, about 4% from the yen and about 4.6% on the dollar, about 1.2% on euro. And you can watch the indices and decide for yourselves. Operating leverage is one of the factors. We have to keep in mind that we've just increased capacity in Manesar by 100,000.

Depending upon how the volume grows next year, it may, it may, have an impact on the margins.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

Yeah. So Rahul sir, thanks a lot for the minute details what you shared. Just some clarification on export profitability, sir. Given that a lot of these suppliers are through the Suzuki-Toyota network, how does the pricing work? Is there a cost plus formula which works, or you decide the pricing at your end? How does the pricing and the margin mechanism hence work, sir?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

So finally, it's the market. We have to be competitive in that market, and we have to be better than our competition. We have to increase our volume. Sometimes, you know, when the commodity, sorry, when the Forex rates become benign, you get a windfall profit, sometimes even much more than domestic. It keeps on varying. The best strategy in exports is to diversify.

So the good part is that Maruti exports to about 100 countries of the world across several products. And it's quite, it's very common that, you know, one of the very high-performing markets suddenly becomes zero the next year. Algeria, for example, at one point of time, it was one of our top five markets, suddenly became zero because of some government norm. Sri Lanka was a good market, suddenly. So these keep on changing. It's a long-term de-risking strategy. And overall, the profits are also healthy.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

But it's, it's not a fixed cost plus formula, right? In that, that's what I'm trying to understand, is like there could be variability for various factors, but it's not like you just get a contract manufacturing margin on the exports.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

You know, finally, it's the distributor, it's the contract with the distributor.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

Yeah.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

And, based on that, we negotiate.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, UBS

Okay, fair enough. Thanks a lot, sir, and wish you all the best. Thank you.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Raghunandan NL from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director, Nuvama Institutional Equities

Thank you, sir, for the opportunity, and congrats on the recognition with Investor Relations Award. Sir, firstly, on CAFE norms, what would be the current position of Maruti on future CAFE norm changes? Can you provide some color as well?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Okay. So, you know, you're right, CAFE is one of the central regulations that determines our whole product strategy, our powertrain strategy, and our overall approach towards decarbonization. Fortunately, in the first year of CAFE Two, which started in 2022-2023, Maruti, in absolute terms, it's, I think we are the best, from whatever information is publicly available, we have the lowest CO2 emission, and we would like to maintain it this way. CAFE Three discussion will also start with the government sometime. It will kick in from 2027, because the current phase is five years. And we'll have it in discussion with the government, and there are multiple parameters that are being discussed.

We'll keep sharing with you as we get more information.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director, Nuvama Institutional Equities

Thank you, sir. For full year FY 2024, can you share some color on the mix, first time replacement, additional buyer? You alluded to, you know, the reduction in share in first time, and how do you see that going forward?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

The first time buyer is between 40%-43%. There are so many ways of collecting data, so there's a sense of approximation, the additional buyer is about 38%, and the replacement buyer is about 22%.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director, Nuvama Institutional Equities

First time, how much was it last year? You know, given the expectation that rural will do well in FY 2025, would you say that first time should see some recovery?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

As of now, we are not able to see any recovery in the first-time buyer, unfortunately. It may. If you are talking about small cars, for example, at least this year and maybe next year, it will be difficult.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director, Nuvama Institutional Equities

Understood, sir. And rural share continues to improve. So what would be the share here for FY 2024?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

So, you know, now the definitions are also kind of blurring. So rural, this time, this year grew at a better rate than urban. But now the definitions are blurring, so we are talking about, for example, we have now mixed rural outlets. So, till this year it grew more than, more than urban, slightly higher than urban.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director, Nuvama Institutional Equities

Got it, sir. Just a last question. I mean, Transport Ministry has been making positive statements on GST cut for hybrids. Would GST cut allow the company to become more aggressive on the hybrid strategy, especially for below four-meter vehicle? Assuming a GST cut, can hatchbacks be considered for hybrids, or would you focus on hybrids irrespective of GST cut?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

See, the hybrids are a very potent and consumer-friendly, environment-friendly technology for India, particularly when charging infrastructure is still very low. So, and we are thankful to the government that they are thinking on these lines. We do not know the outcome because there are several ministries involved. We want to pursue this technology over the medium term. Of course, if the government does something for the consumer, we'll be very thankful and we'll welcome it. We have to stay committed to this technology anyway. And, as a first, as a first priority, it lends itself slightly to bigger cars, which have more space under the, under the bonnet to accommodate both the power trains. But if volumes grow, innovation and R&D can happen, and it can come to more compact cars also.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director, Nuvama Institutional Equities

Got it, sir. Wishing you all the best. Thank you so much.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Kapil Singh from Nomura. Please go ahead.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Yeah, thanks. So just one question on the raw material to sales. You know, this quarter we saw almost 140 basis points of drop in discounts, and we also raised prices by 50 basis points or thereabout. And I think Forex would also be, you know, favorable or it is not negative. So in that context, if you could help us understand why the raw material to sales has actually increased slightly on a quarter-to-quarter basis?

Arnab Roy
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

I think if you look at from a quarter-to-quarter basis, it's a marginal increase by almost about from 74 to 74.2, so it's only 20 basis points. It's not very significant. And as Rahul said, there are a couple of one-offs, which are already there in that. So I think it's not very significant. Overall, the commodity outlook remains flat.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

No, I understand that, sir, but your discount drop is quite significant, right? It's almost 140 basis points, and you took a pricing also by 50 basis points. I mean, there is a tailwind of nearly 200 basis points.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Ha! So, Kapil, there was one phenomenon of mix, also, that happened, that affected the ASP. Okay, you're talking about raw material to sales-

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Sales.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Of course, there have been some one-offs, as we have mentioned.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Mm-hmm.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

And, commodity, also we have to see how it affects us.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Okay. So was there an increase in commodity as well, or this is more mostly driven by mix?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Some commodities that we expected did not exactly come in line with that.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Okay, sure. And, one question was on, you know, how do you see the evolution of the market in terms of SUVs and other segments? Because, you know, if I look at SIAM definition of EVs, it's almost sitting 60%, right? So in the medium term, do you think this mix keeps on rising? And when we look at, you know, long-term target of 50% market share, is it contingent on recovery in small cars? Or do you think you can keep raising market share in SUVs also, which will help you get there?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Two questions. So I'll break it into two parts. First question is... Do you see more increase in SUVs? Yes. Currently, the trend shows that SUVs share may keep on increasing, at least for some more percentage points. How much? We don't know. It could be between 5%-10%, but honestly, anybody will guess. The second is, within this, I think SUVs, which since they have very large wheels, they are larger, heavier vehicles, so they come at a cost of CO2. And what view does the government take on large SUVs is also to be seen, because it comes at a huge cost of CO2. The second part, I missed your second question.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

No, I was just asking, you know, in terms of your own ambition to achieve 50% market share, is it contingent on recovery in small car segment or, even if SUV mix keeps on rising, you know, plan should be achievable?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Ha! See, we have to adapt ourselves to the new realities of the market. If more than 50% of the cars in the market are SUVs, it has to find a similar share in our new model launches also. So we have to keep increasing the models in that segment.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Mm-hmm.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

That, of course, is a model development. I mean, it takes four years to develop a model, so there will be some lumpiness around it, so we have to give it that kind of time. We have to keep in mind that, currently our market share in SUVs is just about 21%. So the incremental gains can be good, if we launch more SUVs.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Sure. Sir, could you also talk about the growth in bookings and inquiry levels, and where is the current inventory, like, quarter- on- quarter?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

So, high single digit is roughly the flavor, whether we talk about inquiries or bookings, I mean, immediate term. And, I missed your other question.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Inventory. Inventory level.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Inventory is broadly fine. We are about one month. It's about 136,000 units as at the end of the financial year.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

In fact,

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

... Ha, it's less than what it should be. So, for the customer, if we have less inventory, then some particular color, some variant will not be available in the showroom, which is not a healthy situation. So, in December, and obviously, the inventories are, you know, drained out, and it becomes very, very lean. We would like to maintain at least a one-month inventory in the dealerships. Yeah.

Arnab Roy
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Just for clarity point, I think what you need to remember is now with our higher volume, one month is-

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Yeah

Arnab Roy
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Approximately in the range of 150-160. So that should be the new normal for you to calibrate this.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Nomura

Understood, sir.

Thank you so much. Have a good day.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Gunjan Prithyani from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Gunjan Prithyani
Senior Analyst, Bank of America

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I had couple of follow-ups. Firstly, on this backlog on CNG, can you share what is the pending, bookings on the CNG yet to be serviced?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

So about 111,000 is our bookings for the pending bookings as at the end of the quarter. And a good part is in the Ertiga.

Gunjan Prithyani
Senior Analyst, Bank of America

Okay. And it's fair to assume that rest of the portfolio, there won't be much backlog now?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

So our total pending bookings are about 200,000, and out of which 111,000 are on CNG.

Gunjan Prithyani
Senior Analyst, Bank of America

Okay, got it. Rahul sir, can you share the royalty number also, if there's any meaningful change?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

3.5%. 3.5%.

Gunjan Prithyani
Senior Analyst, Bank of America

Okay. Okay, my second question is on the EV launch, if you can share the progress on that and, you know, if there's any change to the timelines, you know, especially in the backdrop that, you know, globally, there is certainly a change in the narrative where, you know, hybrids are being spoken a lot more favorably versus EVs. So, you know, is there any change to our timelines? And in, you know, even an extension to that, you, you know, you did mention in your opening remarks that hybrid has seen good acceptance in your Grand Vitara portfolio as well. So, you know, what is holding us back from launching more, you know, extending hybrid to some of the other models also in the portfolio?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Okay. See, first, let me share a model development lead time is about four years. So, month-on-month, responses to market change will not happen. Secondly, you know, work has started on the EV much, much earlier, so even if globally there is a kind of a downward trend, that won't change our, our launch timing. So that continues, as earlier. And on hybrids, yes, we would like to, we would like to, increase it in further models. Of course, it has to, it's a complex equation where we calculate, you know, the CO2, the customer acceptance, the sales, the volume, the viability, and within all these variables, we try to maximize, the new technology, absorption. So of course, yes, we are, we are quite positive about hybrids.

Gunjan Prithyani
Senior Analyst, Bank of America

Okay, got it. And, lastly, just, you know, maybe, you know, this has been asked multiple times. I'm, like, still struggling to reconcile the margins, because if I look at operating leverage, it's one, you know, roughly would give you about 140, 150 basis points sequentially. There'll be about 140 basis point that you've seen from discount. There is a drag that you mentioned of 60 basis point one-off, but still, you know, there is, the difference is either mix-- has materially the mix been a drag in this quarter, or is there something else to call out, you know, which would have been, you know, which would have been, offsetting factor?

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

So sequentially, our operating EBIT, which is the right parameter to look at, considering that we buy from SMG and TKM also, we've improved from 9.9% to 10.8%. That's a 90 basis points jump. Our operating leverage gave us a benefit of 140 basis point. Poor sales promotion gave us 80 basis points. There were other factors of about 1.4 or 140 basis points negative. So net, we had an 80 basis points, and of course, we have to keep in mind the one-offs that I spoke about across various heads, some in CSR, some in, you know, material, some development costs, built in some some cost provision that we had to keep for something.

Those miscellaneous add up to about 60 basis points.

Arnab Roy
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

I would like to comment here on one point. If you look at from a commodity perspective, although there are pluses and minuses, but as Rahul explained earlier, the weighting of steel is quite significant, and steel has gone up actually sequentially in the quarter by about 2%. So there is an impact of that amount in the numbers as well, which you need to factor over and above what he has said.

Gunjan Prithyani
Senior Analyst, Bank of America

Okay, got it. That's helpful. All right, thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today, and with this, we conclude today's conference call. On behalf of Maruti Suzuki India Limited, we thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

Rahul Bharti
Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Thank you.

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