Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Tata Motors Ltd.<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=TTMT%3AIN>, the Indian truck maker that owns Jaguar and Land Rover, posted its first quarterly loss in seven years as tighter credit and slower economic growth hurt vehicle sales and it had a foreign exchange loss.
The company had a net <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=TTMT%3AIN>loss off 2.63 billion rupees ($54 million) in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from a profit of 4.99 billion rupees a year ago, Mumbai-based Tata Motors said in a statement today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of nine analysts was for a net income of 142 million rupees. The loss doesn't include financials of Jaguar and Land Rover. The loss adds pressure on Chairman Ratan Tata<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Ratan+Tata&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>to find funds to repay debt for the acquisition and begin sales of the Nano, the world's cheapest car. Global vehicle demand this year may fall 14 percent to 55 million units, Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Carlos+Ghosn&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>said earlier this month. "Any slowdown in the economy first affects the automobile industry," said Mumbai-based A. Balasubramaniam<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=A.+Balasubramaniam&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, chief investment officer of Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co., which has about $8 billion of assets. "Cheap finance isn't available and consumer sentiment is low." The third-quarter result includes a foreign exchange loss of 2.27 billion rupees on the revaluation of foreign currency borrowings, Tata Motors<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=TTMT%3AIN>said. In the year-ago quarter, it had a foreign exchange gain of 275 million rupees. The company last had a net quarterly loss in the three months ended December 2001. Earnings were inflated by 478 million rupees of income from the sale of a stake in Tata Tele Services Ltd., the company said. Slow Growth India's central bank on Jan. 27 cut its growth forecast for the economy to 7 percent from at least 9 percent in the previous three years. The Reserve Bank also asked banks to reduce rates and boost credit. The global recession has damped demand for luxury vehicles. In response, Tata Motors said it's cutting 300 management positions and 150 salaried agency personnel at Jaguar Land Rover and management won't get bonuses in 2009. Sales at the two units declined a combined 36 percent to about 49,000 units. Honda Motor Co., Japan's second-largest automaker, today slashed its full-year profit forecast 57 percent. The company expects a loss this quarter. Toyota Motor Corp<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=7203%3AJT>., the world's largest automaker, has forecast its first operating loss in 71 years and Ford Motor Co. yesterday reported its worst-ever annual loss. The crisis has also forced General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to rely on government bailouts to pay bills. 'No Turnaround' "There's no turnaround on the horizon for some more time," said Mumbai-based Apurva Shah, head of research at Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt., a local brokerage. Tata Motors' American depositary receipts fell 11 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $4.04 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Earlier, the shares dropped 1.6 percent to 149.65 rupees in Mumbai, extending this year's decline to 6.4 percent after a 78 percent tumble in 2008. The company will cut capital expenditure plans of as much as 8 billion rupees in the next two years, C. Ramakrishnan, chief financial officer, said in Mumbai. Tata earlier planned to spend as much as 100 billion rupees in five years starting in 2008. 'We Had the Worst' "I do believe that we had the worst in third quarter," Managing Director Ravi Kant<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Ravi+Kant&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>told reporters after the earnings. "I don't expect to see these things in my lifetime." The company's sales of trucks, Indica cars, and Safari sport-utility vehicles in India and overseas declined 32 percent to 98,760 vehicles during the quarter, Tata Motors said. Net sales in the quarter fell 35 percent to 47.14 billion rupees, lagging behind analyst estimates of 50.7 billion rupees. The slumping sales prompted Moody's Investors Service to downgrade Tata Motors's debt rating in November for a second time in six months. Standard & Poor's brought down the truckmaker's rating in December to the lowest in four years. That raises borrowing costs for Tata Motors. The company is in discussions with banks to refinance $2 billion of the $3 billion bridge-loan it took to purchase the luxury units from Ford Motor Co., Ramakrishnan said. The company last month began collecting deposits from investors directly for the first time in 13 years, offering as much as 11 percent interest. It raised 3 billion rupees through the plan. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a7kJHPucXNGE&refer=india -- We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise. Swami Vivekananda --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. 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