Apollo Tyres Ltd. has reported net sales of $580 million and a net profit of $25 million for the first quarter of the financial year 2012-13.
Shareholders approved the annual dividend payout of 50% per share (0.50 per equity share), for the year ended March 31, 2012.
Apollo Tyres Ltd.’s first quarter sales represent an increase of 12%, compared to the same quarter last year, while net profit grew by 79%.
Apollo says it has established a clear leadership in the growing truck-bus radial tires, registering a growth of 60% in the quarter; while in South Africa passenger vehicle tire sales moved higher by 32%. European operations, even in a slowdown situation, continued to maintain topline growth and profitability expanded by close to 50%.
“For the past few quarters, we have been focusing on improving our product and customer mix across geographies,” said Onkar Kanwar, chairman, Apollo Tyres Ltd. “This has enabled us to post incremental revenue increases on a sequential basis in each of the quarters last year, eventually resulting in enhanced profitability in the first quarter of this year.
“Our leadership in the growing truck-bus radial segment in India along with an increased focus on the replacement market has allowed us to achieve this. The investments made in the Chennai plant two years back on both product and process technology are showing results and have provided us with a superior springboard for the future.”
