Eicher Motors Ltd, the maker of Royal Enfield reported a 2.4 percent rise in consolidated profit for the third quarter of the financial year 2018-19 at Rs 533 crore. In the same period, a year ago, it made a profit of Rs 520.50 crore.

Consolidated sales for the October-December 2018 was up by 3.42 percent to Rs 2,328.25 crore in comparison with Rs 2,250.65 crore in the previous quarter. Revenue from operations in the quarter under review increased 3.2 percent to Rs 2,341 crore from the previous year.

Sales volume of Royal Enfield fell 6 percent on a year-on-year basis but rose 3.6 percent from the September 2018-ended quarter. It sold 1.94 lakh units in the third quarter.

"The latter half of 2018 was a challenging period for the two-wheeler industry in India. Factors like increased insurance requirements, rising raw material costs and the subsequent price increase due to regulatory safety requirements impacted the momentum of the industry," said Siddhartha Lal, Managing Director, and CEO, Eicher Motors.

At an operational level, consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) for the quarter declined to 3.9 percent from the year-ago to Rs 679.5 crore while the margin contracted 220 basis points to 29 percent. The EBITDA lowered for the first time in the last eight years while the margin dropped below 30 percent for the first time since March 2016-ended quarter.