Dear Shareholders,
It is my honour and privilege to report back to you with exciting news
on the year gone by. Your Company has posted record results for FY2024. The resilient,
competitive and profitable growth in the year has propelled the financial results to new
highs.
Let me outline some of these achievements -
1. Revenue clocked an all-time high at ? 44,685 crores, up 23%
year-on-year, arising from the record sales of both vehicles and spares.
2. At ?8,825 crores, EBITDA registered its highest ever, growing a
solid 35% over previous year.
3. EBITDA margin at 1 9.7% was up a significant +180 basis points over
previous year driven by dynamic results management, richer product mix and operating
leverage. What is also noteworthy is that your Company delivered this accretion after
absorbing the significant investments on building its electric scooters business,
underscoring the commitment to its growth.
4. Profit Before Tax at ? 9,822 crores and Profit After Tax at ? 7,479
crore, both up 33% over last year, also hit new peaks.
5. The strong track record of cash generation was upheld as nearly ?
6,600 crores of Free Cash Flow was added this year, the highest ever and up 45% compared
to last year.
Apart from the records, another hallmark of the performance was the
consistency of growth across all guarters.
This reflects your Company's resilient business model, where a strong
domestic performance more than made up for muted exports which continued to be impacted by
the challenging context in overseas markets.
As a result of the landmark performance, the Balance Sheet of your
Company remains very healthy with surplus cash and cash eguivalent as on 31 March 2024
standing at ? 1 6,386 crores - this after making capital investments of ~?800 crores and
paying a significant ~?8,900 crores to shareholders between dividend and the share
buyback. This financial position allows your Company to invest sufficiently for its
competitive and sustainable future growth as well as reward its shareholders from time to
time.
Across our businesses, I am pleased to say that there is much to cheer
about.
Our domestic business delivered its largest revenue, on sustained
momentum that led to double-digit growth for eight successive guarters. This was driven by
robust volume-led growth across all businesses and market share gains.
Your Company's domestic motorcycle sales by volume grew by 20%
in FY2024, compared to the previous year. It maintained its strong competitive performance
and, thanks to the Pulsar, emerged as the largest
1 25cc+ player of the year.
FY2024 was by far the biggest year for our 1 25cc+ segment,
where led by Pulsar models, our growth was eight times that of the rest of the industry.
Your Company has been at the forefront of driving the trend of premiumization across the
industry.
KTM delivered its best ever sales.
The introduction of Triumph has added strength to the premium
portfolio, delivering over 40,000 units in the eight months post its launch, with the
Speed 400 and Scrambler 400X experience being made available across 56 cities domestically
and 1 6 export markets by the end of the year.
Chetak electric scooters delivered strong results, staying
resolute to its journey of expansion over the last couple of years. At over 1 15,000
units, sales in the year were up 3X over the previous one, enabling it climb to the #3
position in the industry, up from #7 last year
Domestic sales of commercial vehicles surged ahead, closing the
year with historic high volumes that grew significantly ahead of the industry. The year
also saw the successful rollout of electric three-wheelers, with segment leadership in
early launch cities leading to the acceleration of network expansion across the country.
As for Exports, your Company had to navigate continued rough
macro-economic conditions across its key markets. The business acted decisively to adapt
and manage currency constraints and market volatility. Against this backdrop, it stepped
up its sales in the second half to close the full year with flat revenue. The robust
growth in Latin American markets which achieved its highest sales, further aided by the
Middle East, partially alleviated the slowdown in Africa and Asia.
Now coming to how I see the next year.
It is anticipated that India, now the fastest growing economy in the
world, will achieve upwards of 7% real GDP growth in FY2024, and various forecasts expect
this buoyancy to continue in FY2025.
With stable CPI inflation at around 5%, we envisage double digit
nominal GDP growth. In such a milieu and barring any unforeseen event, I would expect
domestic demand to continue to pave the way for another year of growth up ahead.
In this context, to deliver another year of competitive and profitable
performance, the priorities for our business are clear:
Sustain the momentum on our domestic business and continue to
drive growth across all segments
Navigate the challenging international landscape and stay the
course on recovering our exports volumes
Maintain the thrust on differentiated product innovation,
impactful in-market activation and superior customer experience
Expand our capacity, capabilities and network for our new
businesses, namely Chetak electric scooters, electric three wheelers and Triumph
motorcycles
Build and develop our strategic growth enablers through our
wholly owned subsidiaries -
- Chetak Technology Limited - as a powerhouse for disruptive and EV
technology
- Bajaj Auto Credit Limited - as a captive financing arm (that
commenced business in January 2024) which seeks complete its national presence across the
sales network by the end of March 2025
Continue focus on dynamic financial management to ensure
competitive and profitable growth with strong cash flow generation
On behalf of you, our shareholders, I offer our sincerest
congratulations to your Company's Managing Director, Shri Rajiv Bajaj, and his management
team and workers for delivering such a record performance in FY2024.
Given the state of the business and with such a passionate team that is
capable of making a difference,
I have absolute confidence that your Company is well placed to deliver
yet another big year in FY2025.
I would like to thank you, our shareholders, for your support and
continued trust.
We appreciate it greatly.
Yours sincerely,
Niraj Bajaj |
Chairman |
18 April 2024 |