After a strong performance in the second quarter, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. is on track to claw back market share as its new products and upcoming launches in sports utility segment are gaining traction among buyers, analysts said.
Due to limited presence in the rapidly growing SUV segment, the company’s market share has reduced to 39.88% in September from 49.74% year ago, data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations showed.
To shore up its volumes, Maruti Suzuki has launched the Grand Vitara, and upgraded the Brezza, Ertiga and XL6 in a span of four months. It has 4.12 lakh pending bookings, out of which, 1.30 lakh are for the Grand Vitara and the revamped Brezza.
Analysts also said easing commodity costs and favourable currency movement will also help the company in recovering its operating margin, which were hammered by the steep rise in metal prices and lower scale of operations amid shortage of semiconductors.
The Brezza maker’s operating margin stood at 9.3% in quarter ended September compared with 4.2% a year ago.
Here’s what analysts made of Maruti Suzuki’s Q2 results:
