Jaguar Land Rover Boosts Tata Profit

Tata Motors Ltd. posted net earnings of 62 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) in the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31 compared with 26 billion rupees ($474 million) a year earlier. Strong demand for its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands offset weak sales in India.

Tata's revenue climbed 44% to 509 billion rupees ($9.1 billion) in the quarter on sales of 268,100 passenger and commercial vehicles.

The U.K.-based Jaguar Land Rover unit posted pretax income of 530 million ($832 million) for the quarter compared to 299 million ($469 million) in the same period of 2011. JLR revenue soared 52% to 4.1 billion ($6.5 billion) as sales advanced 48% to 98,000 vehicles.

Analysts were disappointed that JLR's operating margin narrowed to 14.6% in the latest quarter from 17% in the three months ended Dec. 31. The unit attributes the margin decline to the expense of training new workers and higher marketing costs.

For the full fiscal year, Tata netted 135 billion rupees ($2.4 billion), up 47% from the previous year. Revenue increased 36% to 1.7 trillion rupees ($29.7 billion) on sales of 863,200 vehicles.

JLR pretax profit for the full year jumped 34% to a record 1.5 billion ($2.4 billion). Revenue rose 37% to 13.5 billion ($21.2 billion). Sales grew 29% to a record 314,400 vehicles, including a 76% surge to 51,000 units in China.

Tata says it will invest 2 billion ($1.9 billion) in new products for JLR this year, up from 1.5 billion in 2011.