A slippery road awaits Bajaj, TVS

Investors have reacted quite in opposite directions to the December-quarter (Q3FY24) results of Bajaj Auto Ltd and TVS Motor Co.Ltd. On Thursday, while shares of Bajaj Auto gained by over 5%, those of TVS Motor fell by 3%. Bajaj's Q3 results were a step ahead of analysts' estimates, while TVS Motor fell short, albeit only slightly.

- Vineetha Sampath

Even so, Q3 was a decent quarter with both the automakers clocking multi-quarter high Ebitda margins.

Bajaj's Ebitda margin stood at 20.1%, while that of TVS was 11.2%.

The festive season was strong, and demand continued to hold post that, Bajaj said in its earnings call. Also, commodity cost tailwinds worked in their favour.

Still, the path ahead is not all smooth and it remains to be seen if the momentum in margins sustains. For one, there is a slight uptick in the costs of certain raw materials and Bajaj expects some level of inflation in Q4.

Also, recovery in the export market has lagged expectations, which impacts Bajaj more than TVS. Exports form a larger share of Bajaj's portfolio-about 48% of two-wheeler volume in FY23, versus 26% for TVS.