Nov 13 (Reuters) - India's Eicher Motors, which makes the Royal Enfield brand of motorcycles, reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by increased sales of its higher-capacity models such as the 'Himalayan'.
The company said its net profit rose 8.3% year-on-year to 11 billion rupees ($130.40 million) in the three months to Sept. 30.
That beat analysts' average estimate of 10.66 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.
Eicher logged a more-than-36% year-over-year rise in the quarter for the sale of its motorcycles with engine capacity above 350cc such as the 'Interceptor 650', helped by demand from its main demographic, urban consumers.
These higher margin motorcycles accounted for 15.3% of total sales, compared to 11.1% a year earlier.
This countered the 12% fall in domestic sales of motorcycles of engine capacity up to 350cc like the 'Hunter 350', which make for a majority of its sales.
Total revenue from operations, rose 3.6% to 42.63 billion rupees in the quarter.
Eicher, which also makes trucks and buses in a joint venture with the Volvo Group, said total expenses rose 5.8% to 22.69 billion rupees.
Rival Bajaj Auto posted a 21% rise in second-quarter adjusted profit last month, while Hero Motocorp is due to report its quarterly results on Thursday.
Eicher's shares closed down 3.2% before quarterly results were reported.
($1 = 84.3570 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Meenakshi Maidas in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Mrigank Dhaniwala
Source: Reuters