Maruti Suzuki India smashes Q2 profit view on SUV demand

BENGALURU, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Maruti Suzuki India (MRTI.NS), the countrys top carmaker by sales, on Friday sailed past quarterly profit estimates as strong sport utility vehicles (SUVs) sales and cooling input costs boosted margins.

Marutis profit after tax for the three months to Sept. 30 rose 80% to 37.17 billion rupees ($446.64 million), well above analyst estimates of 30.08 billion rupees, LSEG data showed.

The results sent shares up 4% to 10,845 rupees.

Margins on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) at the company, majority-owned by Japans Suzuki (7269.T), expanded to 12.91% from 9.25% a year earlier.

\This is an exceptional performance on the operational front, which no one on the street expected. Marutis outperformance would be hard to match by rivals, and warrants a potential re-rating on the stock, said Amit Hiranandani, automobile sector lead analyst at brokerage SMIFS.

The maker of the Brezza SUV is the first of Indias listed carmakers to report results and benefit from a better share of sales from the revenue and margin-boosting SUVs, analysts have said.

Improved semiconductor availability has helped Maruti and its smaller rivals boost production of the chip-heavy SUVs, instead of smaller cars where sales have fallen.

Utility vehicles sales - which includes SUVs and the seven-seater Ertiga- comprised 32% of quarterly volumes, up from 16% a year earlier, sending revenue up 25% to 355.35 billion rupees.

During the quarter, Maruti also said it aims to nearly double production capacity to 4 million units from the current 2.25 million by 2031, for which it would invest at least 450 billion rupees.

Maruti shares have advanced 26.4% this year, trailing the Nifty Auto indexs (.NIFTYAUTO) 28.3% rise.

Smaller rival Tata Motors (TAMO.NS) will report results on Thursday, while Mahindra and Mahindra (MAHM.NS) is due to publish its earnings on Nov. 10.

($1 = 83.2210 Indian rupees)