Mahindra and Mahindra is zero debt company with more cash, says CFO V S Parthasarathy

Automobile giant, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd’s (M&M) September quarter results were out this week and considering the overall economic slowdown in India, the company has met the expectations of Dalal Street. Though, volumes declined in Mahindra's automotive and farm equipment businesses, but tractor sales did a shade better than expectations. The 8% year-on-year (y-o-y) decline in tractor volumes is better than estimates, analysts said. Sales in the automotive segment fell 21% y-o-y. V. S Parthasarathy, CFO, Mahindra and Mahindra shared his takes on the results with Zee Business and mentioned outlook for the company.

He said, ''As far as performance is concerned there were excessive headwinds in the business but even though the auto sector as a whole has witnessed a huge drop in volume, we have faced a lot smaller drop in volume figures. Even with a weak business for the industry and despite seeing a 20% volume drop in Q2FY20, we have successfully maintained our EBITDA margin to about 14% which is more or less similar to last quarter. So overall we have been extremely resilient in the touch circumstances last quarter, which speaks a lot about our business. As far as demand outlook is concerned, there was a strong demand in October so far and we are expecting a better number next quarter for sure.''

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The shares of the auto major witnessed a correction on Monday's trading session, ending at Rs 575 on the NSE. In this calendar year so far, the M&M stock has lost nearly 28%; while BSVI barrier is still to be met.

Talking about the concern of dealer inventory, Parthasarathy added, "We are taking steps to cut our inventories with the dealers to boost future business. Also keeping in mind the BSVI engines and other aspects, we are significantly taking steps to control this. Though we are a zero debt company with more cash which is strong point of our business".

He also said, ''If we divide our margins in parts, than we can see our material costs to be same as of now. So we can say that there is no expectations of future price rise due to no jump in costs. Also our cost effective measures and cost engineering will help benefit our business in coming quarters.''