UML races to highest ever half yearly after tax profit

United Motors Group’s net profit after tax for the half year ended 30 September 2011 rose 396 per cent year-on-year to Rs. 966 million, the highest ever net profit the Group has recorded.

The revenue of the Group rose 147 per cent from Rs. 3.61 billion for the half year ended 30 September 2010 to Rs. 8.95 billion for the same period of the current year. The company United Motors Lanka PLC (UML) has also achieved significant growth as revenue increased 119 per cent and net profit rose 458 per cent from Rs. 88 million for the six months ended 30 September 2010 to Rs. 484 million in the same period of the current year.

UML CEO Chanaka Yatawara stated that over the last few years UML Group Companies have added on a significant range of vehicles and products to its product portfolio, this strategic move has been valuable as the group is now placed better in terms of risk against policy and taxation changes in any one segment. The current range includes motor bikes, three wheelers, compact cars, sedans, compact and medium sized SUV’s, single and double cabs, vans, lorries, buses, genuine parts, lubricants, workshop facilities and car care products.

He explained that all companies under the Group has performed exceptionally well during the period. With the increasing demand for its vehicles, services and products UML is also making arrangements to expand its main workshop in Orugodawatte to accommodate more vehicles at any given time while also increasing workshop capacities at its branches.

The Company’s branch network is strategically spread across  Kandy, Anuradapura, Matara, Kurunegala, Ratnapura, Nuwera Eliya, Nugegoda and the latest is under way in Jaffna.

Most of these branches offer sales of all vehicles, spares and service, which allows customers from outstations to get a similar service as that from Colombo in their own areas for convenience.

The group has over 2,000 dealers island-wide for the distribution of tyres, lubricants, two wheelers and three wheelers with a representation in both urban and rural areas.  

UML’s fully owned subsidiary Unimo Enterprises Ltd (UEL) too has done extremely well with its range of Perodua passenger cars, by doubling its sales volumes by the end of the second quarter of the current year in comparison to the financial year of 2010.

Another contributing factor for the exceptional performance has been the growth in the Chinese vehicle division which has performed remarkably well in its segments due to the quality of products, price and after sales support.

UEL continues to locally assemble the Zotye Extreme compact SUV which has an exemption of excise duty resulting in it being one of the cheapest 1.3 litre petrol vehicles available in the market today. The company is also looking at increasing capacity of the local plant to meet the increasing demand for this SUV.

The TVS joint venture companies too delivered very strong results with better two and three wheeler sales.