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UPDATE 2-Suzuki India car unit 01/02 net profit $214.6 mln

(Adds analyst comments, para 2, 5-6, 15-16)

NEW DELHI, July 22 (Reuters) - India's largest carmaker, Maruti Udyog Ltd, a unit of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, said on Monday its 2001/02 audited net profit nearly doubled from the amount announced earlier thanks to a big provisions writeback.

Analysts said the higher profit should fetch the company a better price at one of India's most hotly awaited initial public offerings (IPO) of planned later this financial year.

The firm, 54.2 percent owned by its Japanese parent, reported net profit of 1.045-billion rupees ($214.6 million) in the year to March 2002, nearly twice the 550 million it declared in April, after posting a 2.69-billion-rupee net loss in 2000/01.

The Indian government, which holds a 45.54 percent stake in the New Delhi-based carmaker, plans to sell 20 percent of Maruti as part of its privatisation drive.

"This has been a great comeback and will definitely improve valuations," Avinash Goarkshakar, an analyst at Bombay-based Emkay Shares and Securities, said.

Kalpesh Parekh, an analyst at Bombay-based Sushil Finance, also said the figures brightened the IPO's prospects.

"This should certainly help get a better price," he said.

In April, "substantial provisions had been made for certain excise (duty) claims against Maruti", the automaker said in a statement. "The company had filed appeals against these claims and in the first half of April, certain excise cases were decided in favour of Maruti."

Motor cars in India bear an excise duty -- a tax on production -- of 32 percent. Taxes make up almost half a car's sticker price.

Maruti said its total revenue in 2001/02 grew to 94.103 billion rupees from 92.533 billion in the previous year. Sales rose 0.51 percent year-on-year in 2001/02 to 352,415 units in line with industry figures showing growth of 0.48 percent.

The company, which held a dominating 59 percent share of the nearly 600,000-a-year new car market in the past year, said its board also approved a dividend of 30 percent, or 30 rupees, for every 100 rupee share at its meeting on July 19.

It declared no dividend the previous year.

The carmaker, in which Suzuki bought a majority stake in May, said it swung to a profit despite a 6.4 percent increase in depreciation charges to 3.429 billion rupees.

Maruti had more than 80 percent of India's car market until 1998 but has been hit by new entrants into the country -- South Korea's Hyundai Motor , local firm Tata Engineering and Italy's Fiat .

Its vehicle sales in the April-June quarter dipped 17.7 percent from a year ago while its domestic market share slipped to 52 percent at the end of the first quarter.

Goarkshakar said the decline reflected lower sales of the Maruti 800, the company's largest-selling but oldest car, which needed a facelift to compete effectively against more stylish and powerful models.

But he said he expected greater internal efficiencies as a result of Suzuki moving to a majority holding. ($1 = 48.69 rupees)