Tata Motors Profit Fell 17% Last Quarter

Tata Motors Ltd. on Tuesday reported a 17% decline in profit as its commercial vehicle sales took a hit from the government's crackdown on cash and stricter emission rules.

Consolidated profit at the Mumbai-based parent of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC fell to 43.36 billion rupees ($669 million) during the three months ended March 31, from 52.11 billion rupees a year earlier. That was well above the 26.95 billion rupees consensus estimate in a Thomson Reuters survey.

Consolidated revenue declined 3% to 787.47 billion rupees.

"Commercial vehicle segments witnessed muted demand due to weak replacement demand, subdued freight demand from industrial segment, which took further hit post demonetization, and lower than expected pre-buying ahead of the implementation of Bharat Stage IV emission norms, the company said.

Performance of the passenger vehicles segment, however, was strong thanks to robust demand for Tata's recently launched Tiago and Hexa models.

Performance at its JLR unit also improved, with profit last quarter jumping 18% from a year earlier to 557 million pounds helped by strong sales for the F-Pace and Range Rover models.

Write to Anant Vijay Kala at anant.kala@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 23, 2017 08:20 ET (12:20 GMT)