Mumbai, May 29: A strong performance by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) helped Tata Motors to make up for the loss on its domestic operations and post a smaller-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter net profit.

Tata Motors today reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,945 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, a decline of nearly 37 per cent over Rs 6,234 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal. Analysts had estimated the profit to be in region of Rs 2,800 crore.

For the 2012-13 fiscal, consolidated profit stood at Rs 9,893 crore against Rs 13,517 crore in 2011-12.

Challenging conditions in the domestic market resulted in a net loss of Rs 312.15 crore on a standalone basis against a profit of Rs 565.26 crore in the same period last year. However, the net loss was lower than Rs 458.49 crore reported in the third quarter of 2012-13.

At JLR, net revenues rose nearly 22 per cent to £5.05 billion during the quarter from £4.14 billion in the same period last year. The rise came on the back of higher volumes and a richer market mix, C. Ramakrishnan, chief financial officer of Tata Motors, said today.

The quarter saw a volume growth of nearly 19 per cent for JLR at 116,340 units. For the whole year, volumes grew 18.3 per cent to 372,062 units.

Key to JLR’s growth in the quarter was a 21 per cent spike in sales in China. For 2012-13, China notched up a 48 per cent rise in sales, making it the single-largest market for JLR.

Though margins at JLR rose 230 basis points to 16.9 per cent, net profit dropped to £378 million during the quarter from £696 million because of higher tax charge.

Quarterly revenue for the Indian business fell 32 per cent to Rs 11,068 crore from Rs 16,391 crore in the year-ago period.

According to the company, slowdown in economic activity, sluggish infrastructure spending and a weak macro outlook along with higher operating costs for transport operators hit demand in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle industry.

Tata Motors is undertaking various initiatives to tackle the challenging conditions in the passenger car business, Ramakrishnan said. These include product refresh plans, distribution expansion and improving cost effectiveness.

The Tata Motors scrip closed 2.7 per cent up at Rs 303.80 on the BSE. The results were released after market hours.