Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc issued a profit warning on Tuesday citing the impact of semiconductor chip shortage on vehicle production, sending shares of its parent Tata Motors Ltd as low as 10%.
The British carmaker, which saw sales reviving over the last six months, said it will report a negative operating margin and an operating cash outflow of £1 billion this quarter. The company said it expects the supply of semiconductor-based parts to improve in the fiscal second half, though the problem will continue to impact vehicle production for the next year-and-a-half, until suppliers boost output.
Tata Motors shares recouped some of the losses later in the day, closing 8.14% lower on the BSE, while the benchmark Sensex remained unchanged.
“The company had about £3.7 billion of cash and short-term investments (unaudited). Based on this and broadly in line with expectations given the supply constraints, the company expects to report a cash outflow of about £1 billion with a negative Ebit margin for the quarter. Total liquidity at the end of the first quarter was over £5.6 billion, including a £1.9 billion undrawn committed credit facility (RCF),” JLR said.