Apollo Tyres Ltd.’s consolidated annual revenues across operations for 2014-15 closed at Rs. 127 billion (or Rs. 12,726 crores). During the period the company reported a net profit of Rs. 9.8 billion (Rs. 978 crores). Net sales of the company for the 4th quarter (January-March) closed at Rs. 31 billion (Rs. 3,098 crores), and net profit for that quarter grew 9% to reach Rs. 3.1 billion (Rs. 307 crores).
The Board of Directors has recommended a dividend of 200 per cent to be approved by the shareholders at the forthcoming AGM.
Commenting on the results, Mr. Onkar S. Kanwar, Chairman, Apollo Tyres Ltd., said: “Despite a healthy volume growth in the passenger car tyre segment in Europe, and nearly 30% volume growth in the truck-bus radial segment in India, our topline has not grown, primarily due to the South African operations and also because of the depreciation of the Euro. Having said that, our effort towards faster market expansion outside India has resulted in a strong growth of more than 20% in exports out of India.”
He also observed: “The recent increase in import duty on natural rubber from 20% to 25% in India will be a challenge, going forward. This change in duty is likely to result in further increase in import of cheap tyres into the country, which can be done at 10% duty, and will hinder the growth of capacity investments by the domestic tyre industry, in addition to making us uncompetitive.”