Brexit effect: JLR to benefit from weak pound, says Tata Motors' CFO

Tata Motors expects its British arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to benefit from post-Brexit weak pound in the long term despite getting a heavy hit in the first quarter of this fiscal due to adverse foreign exchange.

The company, which witnessed a 57% plunge in consolidated net income at Rs 2,236 crore in the first quarter, is bullish that with 80% of its sales coming from overseas markets it stands to benefit from a weaker pound.

"JLR's revenue, more than 80% comes (from) outside the UK from Europe, China, the US, and other markets. We do source about 40% to 50 %of our components from the EU. Therefore, if you take a combination of these, JLR over a time would benefit from a continued weaker pound as a result of the Brexit," Tata Motors Group CFO C Ramakrishnan told analysts.

Even though it is partially offset by the higher import costs on what is imported from Europe, overall with the manufacturing and revenue distribution being what it is with 80% of revenue coming from overseas turnover, a weaker pound will definitely benefit JLR over a period of time, he reiterated.

On the implications of Brexit on JLR, Ramakrishnan said it will have two or three major implications.

"One of course is the currency, the extent to which pound continues to remain weak. Second will be on the tariff front that might result following the exit from EU across the ocean and impact, if any, on the overall economic growth and consumer confidence both in the UK as well as the EU," he said.

As far as tariffs are concerned, he said: "UK vehicles exports into the EU roughly about 24% of our total could become subject to tariffs depending on the trade agreements. Similarly vehicles manufactured in the EU, which get sold in the UK in our competition products, could become costlier in the UK."

Ramakrishnan further said component sourced from the EU could also become subject to tariff.

"However, this would be recoverable because we export substantial part of the production in the UK since we re-export, the component import duties if any are there will be somewhat muted because of the large exports JLR has," he added.

In the first quarter this fiscal, as the pound took a beating -- sinking to a 31-year-low following the Brexit vote on June 24 -- Tata Motors' cash cow JLR took a 14% forex hit at Rs 2,296 crore, offsetting the higher income arising from better volumes.

As a result, net income of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) fell 38.21% to 304 million pound in the first quarter ended June, from 492 million pound, while its revenue rose to 5,461 million pound from 5,002 million pound a year ago.

On the investments for this fiscal, Ramakrishnan said the capex and product development will be in the region of about 3.75 billion pounds for JLR.

"We will continue to closely monitor and assess market conditions in the UK and the EU post Brexit as well as China as the target GDP growth rate in China comes under some challenge and may come down," he added.