Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., the nation’s biggest carmaker, is likely to emerge from the coronavirus crisis stronger as the economic crunch will lead to buyers favoring cheaper hatchbacks and shifting to personal cars from shared transportation, analysts said.
Maruti posted a 28% decline in quarterly net income after a nationwide lockdown forced automakers to shut their factories and migrant workers to return to their villages.
The company’s profit for the three months ended in March was 12.9 billion rupees ($171 million), compared with the 12.7 billion rupee mean estimate of 18 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
The carmaker’s fortunes are set to turn around as changing buyer behavior favors Maruti’s dominance in cheap hatchbacks. “Maruti could