Tata Motors’ fourth-quarter profit fell less than expected on Monday with the homegrown auto major saying tighter control of expenses and a turnaround at its Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit blunted the impact of the economic slowdown at home.

The company reported a 49 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,108.66 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2019, compared with Rs 2,175.16 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal, it said in a regulatory filing.

Total income during the period under review stood at Rs 87,285.64 crore against Rs 91,643.44 crore a year ago.

Tata Motors expects JLR to return to profit this financial year helped by cost cuts and a recovery in Chinese demand.

Three months ago, Tata promised “decisive action” to cut costs at JLR and improve cash flow after weak sales at the British luxury car brand led Tata to post the biggest-ever quarterly loss in Indian corporate history.

Last month, rival Maruti Suzuki India Ltd had booked a net profit decline of 5 per cent and forecast a weak rate of growth for the current financial year ending March 2020.

For the whole of 2018-19, Tata Motors posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 28,724.20 crore compared with a net profit of Rs 9,091.36 crore in 2017-18. The total income stood at Rs 3,04,903.71 crore for the last fiscal against Rs 2,96,298.23 crore in 2017-18, the filing said.

Standalone numbers

The company’s domestic business reported a standalone net profit of Rs 106.19 crore for the fourth quarter against a net loss of Rs 499.94 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal.

The standalone total revenue from operations stood at Rs 18,561.41 crore compared with Rs 19,173.46 crore in the fourth quarter a year ago.

For the fiscal ended March 31, 2019, standalone profit stood at Rs 2,398.93 crore against a net loss of Rs 946.92 crore in the preceding financial year. Total standalone revenue from operations for 2018-19 was Rs 69,202.76 crore compared with Rs 58,689.81 crore in 2017-18.

N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Motors, said, “Our domestic business delivered a resilient performance in the face of challenging market conditions. We have continued to step up our pace of innovation, improved our market shares as well as our profitability.”

The Tata Motors shares on Monday closed at Rs 190 apiece, 7.53 per cent up, on the BSE.