Hinduja Group flagship company Ashok Leyland is gearing up to expand its light commercial vehicle business, international operations and defence mobility segment, according to company Chairman Dheeraj G Hinduja.

For the electric vehicle (EV) segment, Ashok Leyland is also looking to tap the proven success of its Optare bus range in the United Kingdom, for other locations as well.

Ashok Leyland's LCV business, originally floated as a joint venture with Japanese automajor Nissan and later bought over by the Indian partner, has turned around during the financial year ended March 2018.

Ashok Leyland Vehicles Limited, formerly known as Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles Ltd, has reported a profit of Rs 1.34 billion in FY18 as against a loss of Rs 24.9 million the previous financial year.

Hinduja group flagship Ashok Leyland has decided to merge its light commercial vehicle subsidiaries such as Ashok Leyland Vehicles, Ashley Powertrain and Ashok Leyland Technologies, with itself, subject to necessary regulatory and other approvals, including from the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) Chennai branch.

Shares of Ashok Leyland have declined nearly 10% to Rs 133.75, extending their 4% fall on the BSE on Friday, on concerns of truck volume growth in current fiscal on account of a partial overloading ban relaxation in Uttar Pradesh (UP) from last month.

In the past two weeks, Ashok Leyland has underperformed the market by falling over 18% as compared to 1.2% decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The stock hit a record high of Rs 168 on May 8, 2018 in intra-day trade.

Commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland on Friday beat analysts’ estimates by posting a 40% year-on-year growth in its standalone net profit at Rs 667.4 crore in the January-March quarter. Net sales were, however, below Bloomberg estimates and grew 32% to Rs 8,772.5 crore. The company’s ebitda registered a growth of 42% to Rs 1,033 crore, also below estimates.

Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland has posted a growth of 40 per cent in net profit at Rs 6.67 billion during the quarter ended March 31, 2018, beating the analyst estimates of around 38 per cent growth.

The net profit for the same period last year was Rs 4.76 billion, on a standalone basis. The total income grew by 23.79 per cent during the quarter, to Rs 88.30 billion as compared to Rs 71.33 billion a year ago.

Commercial Vehicle major Ashok Leyland is expecting a 20 per cent growth in its bus business, as the segment is picking up growth from a slow pace last year.

In the previous year, the industry and the company had seen a decline of around 23 per cent owing to various reasons including confusion among customers regarding the delayed Bus Body Code. However, the company managed to increase its market share by 0.3 per cent.

Mumbai: The Hinduja Group flagship, Chennai-based Ashok Leyland, plans to redesign its light commercial vehicles (LCVs) to serve the fast-growing Indian e-commerce industry’s last-mile delivery needs, according to a senior company executive.

LCVs are defined by industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) as vehicles having a maximum mass under 7.5 tonnes.

Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland, the largest suppliers of mobility solutions to the Indian Army, has won another critical order from the ministry of defence (MoD). The contract is for supplying Ashok Leyland’s High Mobility 10×10 vehicles (HMV 10×10,) which have been fully developed in India. This order will end a long search by the Indian Army, which has been looking for HMV 10x10s to carry the Smerch rockets. This initial order is worth over Rs 100 crore, the company said in a release in Chennai on Friday.

Ashok Leyland was trading 3.3% higher at Rs 150 on the BSE after the company said it has won an order from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) for 10x10 vehicles to carry the Smerch Rockets.

“This order will end a long search by the Indian Army, who has been looking for HMV 10x10s to carry the Smerch Rockets, this initial order is worth over Rs 1,000 million,” Ashok Leyland said in a press release.

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