Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) expects to benefit significantly from the government's defence offset policy, said company Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Kumar Datt here on Tuesday.
Addressing a media conference on the company's performance in 2010-11, Mr. Datt said BEL expected to get about 8 per cent of the anticipated total defence offset business of $3-5 billion in the next 3-5 years. “Defence offsets will remain a key growth area for BEL,” Mr. Datt said.
Pre-tax profit up 7 %
BEL's provisional sales turnover amounted to Rs.5,550 crores in 2010-11, compared to Rs.5,220 crore in the previous year, an increase of 6.3 per cent. The pre-tax profit amounted to Rs.1,120 crore, an increase of 7 per cent.
Exports increased to $41.89 million from $23.65 million, an increase of 77 per cent.
Mr. Datt said the sharp increase in the company's order book position — from Rs.11,350 crore at the end of 2009-10 to Rs.23,,600 crore at the end of 2010-11 — would enable BEL to make plans for the future. The company had an export order book of $66.3 million and an offset order book of $42.28 million at the end of the last fiscal.
The company's involvement in the medium range surface to air Akash missile programme had resulted in the weapon systems category contributing about 4 per cent to the company's turnover, Mr. Datt said. ]“This will be an important contributor to our revenues in the future,” he said.
Mr. Datt attributed the slippages in reaching the targeted revenue of Rs.5,700 crore for 2010-11 to BEL not bagging the coastal surveillance system order from the defence forces. “If we had bagged this order, we would have had additional revenues of about Rs.300 crore,” Mr. Datt said. “This order may materialise in July,” he added.
Pointing out that BEL recruits about 350 engineers every year, Mr. Datt said 200 more might be recruited in the current year, for employment at its Bangalore complex.
