Tata Motors Ltd’s standalone business has been forging ahead with strong double-digit sales growth in commercial vehicles (CVs) and passenger vehicles (PVs). However, it looks like the automobile juggernaut is beginning to pay a price for sustaining this growth.

The company’s rising trade receivables indicate it is deploying more credit to push sales. During fiscal year 2018 (FY18), the standalone entity’s trade receivables, which is the amount customers (dealers) owe the firm, rose sharply by 64%, twice the rise in sales.

Tata Motors will invest $1 bln -- its biggest ever investment in the passenger vehicle business --- in the next three years as above average growth spurs demand for newer cars. Mumbai-based Tata will spend $1 bln after the board approved its mid-term business plan recently which includes investments, people in the know said.

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Monday reported 0.9 per cent increase in global sales at 52,049 units in June against 51,591 units in the same month last year.

Sales of Jaguar brand of vehicles in June were at 16,328 units, a growth of 6.41 per cent, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Last week, Tata Motors Ltd’s UK subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover Plc (JLR) in its first “Investors Day” spelt out its ongoing strategy to shift towards the new electric mobility platform, reduce the diesel vehicle component in overall sales and drive margins through efficiency. The efforts, however, failed to fire the parent firm’s stock. On the contrary, the Trump-led rumpus about trade wars precipitated the weakness in investor sentiment for Tata Motors Ltd.

Shares of Tata Motors closed in the red on Monday wiping out more than Rs 5,000 crore from its market valuation, partly because brokerages raised concerns over the firm’s free cash flows due to the higher-than-expected capex and lower volumes. Moreover, US President Donald Trump’s tweet on June 22 escalated the worries of investors. Trump threatened to impose a 20% tariff on all US imports of cars assembled in Europe unless it removed import duties and other barriers to US goods.

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover has lined up investment worth 13.5 billion pounds (around Rs 1.2 lakh crore) in the next three years on new models, technology development and capacity addition.

The company will launch four new models by FY24 taking the total nameplates in its portfolio to 16 from 12 at present. Besides, it has also lined up a total of 99 different 'product actions' during the time period.

Tata Motors is aiming to save Rs 19 billion through cost reduction initiatives during 2018-19, a number comparable to last financial year. It will launch 50 new variants and products in the commercial vehicle (CV) segment, the backbone of the company.

The cost savings of the last year came from both the CV and passenger vehicle (PV) division of the domestic business. Some of the cost saving initiatives include, bringing efficiencies in procurement of raw material and components and alternate cost effective sourcing.

Housing finance major HDFC has been ranked as the 5th biggest public company globally in the 'consumer financial services category' on a list compiled by Forbes magazine.

American Express has topped this category, while Indiabulls Housing Finance is the only other Indian company (at 13th place) on the list.

Tata Motors on Wednesday launched an anniversary edition of its compact sedan Tigor priced at Rs 558,000 and Rs 657,000.

The limited edition Tigor Buzz will be available in both petrol and diesel engine options and will be equipped with manual transmission and is based on the XT variant, Tata Motors said in a statement.

JLR retails for May’18 increased 6% YoY to 41.6k. Jaguar retails increased 7% YoY to 14.5k units while Land Rover (LR) volumes increased 6% YoY to 33.8k units. The growth for JLR (Ex-China geography) stood strong at 11% YoY which has been highest growth in last 14 months.

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