BENGALURU, Aug 10 (Reuters) – India’s largest bike maker Hero MotoCorp (HROM.NS) on Thursday missed first-quarter revenue estimates, harm by a drop in gross sales quantity.

The firm’s standalone revenue after tax got here in at 8.25 billion rupees ($99.9 million), up 32% from a 12 months in the past, however decrease than analysts’ estimate of 8.86 billion rupees as per Refinitiv knowledge.

The outcomes are in distinction with rivals Bajaj, Eicher-owned Royal Enfield, and TVS Motor, all of which topped estimates.

Indian bike makers have been struggling to return to pre-pandemic gross sales volumes, as costlier entry-level choices deter consumers in the important thing rural market from making purchases.

Rural India historically accounted for a majority of all two-wheeler gross sales, with cheaper 100cc choices, together with Hero’s top-selling Splendor bike, accounting for 70% of gross sales.

However, the corporate’s gross sales volumes have dropped lately, with gross sales within the quarter down 2.7% to 1.35 million models from a 12 months earlier than.

Retail inflation additionally continued to squeeze family incomes regardless of easing from final 12 months, with meals costs surging as a consequence of erratic monsoon rains.

Quarterly income rose 4.5% to 87.67 billion rupees, led largely by a price hike taken as a consequence of new emission norms that made it costlier to provide automobiles.

Meanwhile, the corporate stated earlier this week that it had gotten over 25,000 bookings for the X440, the world’s least expensive Harley-Davidson.

The firm has additionally seen India’s monetary crime combating company visit two of its places of work and is being investigated by tax authorities over its hyperlinks to a vendor.

Shares of Hero closed down 0.8% forward of the outcomes.

($1 = 82.5830 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H Okay

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