Maruti Udyog Ltd, the largest car-maker in India, on Wednesday claimed that its market share in A and B segments registered an impressive growth during the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal year (2003-04).

Quoting latest figures from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Maruti managing director Jagdish Khattar told the media in Bangalore that year-on-year, the company grew 37 per cent as against 19 per cent clocked by other manufacturers.

Rising rupee not to impact Maruti exports

While the car industry grew by 28 per cent in Q1 of 2003-04, Maruti recorded 37 per cent growth during same the period, Khattar told reporters in Bangalore after the carmaker signed a MoU with the State Bank of Mysore on offering car financing in Karnataka.

Khattar said Maruti had already entered into an alliance on car finance with the State Bank of India and State Bank of Patiala and would repeat the same with State Bank of Indore and State Bank of Hyderabad in the next few days.

Highlighting its importance, Khattar said the share of car financing in percentage of sales by the car industry in India had gone up from 50 per cent five years ago to 75 per cent now.

SBM's managing director M Sitarama Murthy said the alliance would be mutually beneficial and would give a "big push" to car sales in Karnataka. SBM would offer loans for Maruti vehicles on 10.25 per cent interest with a repayment period of seven years.

Khattar said the 800 model in the A segment led the growth with 63 per cent market share, while Zen, Alto and WagonR in the B segment cornered another 16 per cent share.

In the total car market, sales of the Maruti 800 model grew up by 4 per cent to 20 per cent, and the three models in the B segment posted an increase of another 4 per cent in sales from 40 per cent to 44 per cent.

As a result, our share in the A and B segments went up by 3 per cent from 39 per cent in the first quarter of last fiscal to 42 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal. The overall market share of the company has gone up to 55 per cent from 51 per cent at the end of March 31, 2003," Khattar asserted.

MUL's director (marketing and sales) Kinji Saito said the company exported 32,000 vehicles, including 24,000 units of Alto, during 2002-03, and it was now eyeing a figure of 39,000 to 40,000 during the current fiscal.

It posted a turnover of Rs 9,426 crore (Rs 94.26 billion) and a net profit of Rs 146 crore (Rs 1.46 billion) during FY 2003, registering a 40 per cent increase in net income over Rs 105 crore (Rs 1.05 billion) in FY 2002.

Asked when the next tranche of government's share would be offloaded, both Khattar and Saito said as per the guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, there was a 12-month lock-in period after the IPO.

According to Khattar, car sales in India were set to grow as there was ongoing progress in three areas – road infrastructure improvement, finance becoming easily available at affordable rates and decrease in taxes.

But India had one of the lowest car penetrations in the world with just six cars per thousand households, compared to 12 cars each in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Additional inputs: PTI