M&M net profit increases 47 percent

<div class="section0"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">NEW DELHI: A steady growth in demand for its utility vehicles - led primarily by Scorpio - and tractors, coupled with a stringent cost cutting initiative helped Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) offset rising input costs and drive through the 2004-05 fiscal with a 47 percent growth in net profit.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">The country''s largest utility vehicle maker ended the year with a net profit of Rs 512.67 crore on a total income of Rs 6,769.05 crore.Its annual income also marks a near 34 percent jump year-on-year.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Its growth was slower in the last quarter of the fiscal - which saw input costs driving to a new high - as net profit rose marginally by 5 percent. M&M said it would cut more costs to offset higher raw material prices.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Mahindra has been boosted by a recovery in India''s tractor industry, the world''s biggest, as steady crop output in the last two years have lifted rural incomes in Asia''s fourth-biggest economy.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Sales of its utility vehicles also rose on the back of a booming economy and cheap loans. "The momentum of industrial growth witnessed during the year is expected to continue in 2005-0, and the monsoon is slated to be near normal. These augur well for the automotive and farm equipment sectors," said MD Anand Mahindra.</span></div> </div>