Jaguar Land Rover turns RM3.1 billion pre-tax profit for Q1 2021; making progress in recovery from losses

Jaguar Land Rover has turned a pre-tax profit of GBP534 million (RM3.13 billion) for the first quarter of 2021. This is before GBP1.5 billion (RM8.78 billion) of exceptional changes, which comprised of non-cash write-downs of prior investments and restructuring changes expected to be paid in the 2021/2022 financial year ending March.

This comes to pre-tax losses of GBP592 million (RM 3.46 billion) for the quarter, and GBP861 million (RM 5.04 billion) for the full year, said Jaguar Land Rover, which attributed the losses to charges incurred through its cost-cutting transformation plan.

The British manufacturer sold 123,483 vehicles in the first quarter of this year, or a 12.4% gain year-on-year. This was attributed to strong sales recovery in China where sales grew by 127% through the fourth financial quarter of 2020, when the country was hardest hit by pandemic control restrictions.

Total sales for 2020 were 439,588 vehicles, which was down 13.6% from the 2019/2020 financial year, though sales in China grew 23.4% year-on-year. Of these, the Land Rover Defender sold 16,963 units in the fourth quarter and 45,244 units in the full financial year, the firm reported.

Strong results in the fourth quarter improved pre-tax profits before exceptional changes to GBP662 million (RM 3.87 billion). The sum of exceptional changes weighed in at GBP1.5 billion (RM8.78 billion), which includes GBP952 million (RM 5.58 billion) in non-cash investment write-downs and GBP534 million (RM3.13 billion) in restructuring charges.

This comes up to the aforementioned GBP861 million (RM 5.04 billion) loss for the full year, compared to the GBP422 million (RM2.47 billion) loss sustained in the previous financial year.

The company saw GBP332 million (RM1.94 billion) in profit and cash improvements in the fourth quarter relating to its Project Charge+ restructuring plan, bringing total savings to GBP6 billion (RM35.13 billion) since the launch of the programme in September 2018, it said.

“Our strategy is ambitious and it will make us more agile, efficient and sustainable. Although it is still early days, we have made significant progress in implementing it. This has reaffirmed my confidence that we have the right strategy, the right people and the right product-plans to deliver against our targets,” said Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bolloré.

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