(Reuters) -India’s Tata Motors on Tuesday did not confirm its profitability target for luxury car brand Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), joining other global automakers in abstaining or pulling their forecasts due to the uncertainty around U.S. tariffs.
Imported cars have been a main focus of U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade war. Trump last month imposed a 25% tariff on all foreign-made vehicles sold in the world’s second-largest car market, which is UK-based JLR’s fastest-growing market.
JLR said it met its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margin target of 8.5% for the year ended March, but abstained from confirming its target of a 10% EBIT margin for the current fiscal year.
“We are assessing our guidance in light of the recent UK-U.S. trade deal announced on May 8 and will provide an update at our investor day on June 16,” said parent Tata Motors, which gets about two-thirds of its overall revenue from JLR.
Despite the U.S.-UK trade deal, analysts expect JLR’s North America sales to drop this fiscal year, with some noting that the top-selling ‘Defender’ SUV, which is made in Slovakia, is not covered under the deal.
Automakers globally, including Mercedes-Benz, Fiat-owner Stellantis and Volvo, have either abstained from issuing or pulled their earnings forecasts.
Still, JLR’s sales volumes rose 1.1% in the January-March quarter, helped by strong demand for its SUVs in North America and Europe.
That helped Tata Motors’ fourth-quarter profit of 84.70 billion rupees ($993 million) beat analysts’ estimates of 74.58 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The company’s profit halved from the year-ago quarter, which included a one-time tax benefit.
Tata Motors’ shares closed 1.8% lower ahead of the results. ($1 = 85.2750 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Savio D’Souza)
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