Bajaj Elec eyes new orders, revenue jump

The company’s order book for engineering and projects business stood at Rs9.32 billion as on 30 April, as against Rs7.37 billion at the end of 2008-2009.

“With the government expenditure being pretty solid in the infrastructure side, this has been pretty consistent area," Anant Bajaj, executive director said.

The company is the lowest bidder for a Rs630-million power transmission projects and expects another Rs1 billion of orders for other projects such as rural electrification, he added.

Indian government is spending billions of dollars every year on expanding basic power infrastructure in the country and its state-run utilities including Power Grid Corp have lined up several projects to be offered to private companies.

Bajaj Electricals had also submitted bids for Rs5-6 billion worth of projects, where the outcome is yet to be known, he said.

Mumbai-based firm, which primarily makes electrical home appliances and lighting products is now considering moving into bigger projects in power and related industries, he said.

These may include full-fledged power project contracting, turnkey contracts for industrial lighting and power distribution by itself, he added.

“We do almost every aspect of (electrification projects)...the only thing which we are not doing is distributing power itself," said Bajaj, adding that power distribution is a logical move for the business.

“In the projects division, we are looking at expanding the range...and perhaps at some stage to get in to project management in a bigger way."

The consumer durables player will launch consumer products like inverters and water purifiers this fiscal, he added.

“We are introducing it (water purifiers) in the couple of markets... probably by the second or third quarter we will introduce it in few markets...We should be there in 20-30 markets in this financial year," Bajaj said.

Earlier on 26 May, the firm posted a 31.4% rise in FY10 net profit at Rs1.17 billion, as net sales grew 26% to Rs22.29 billion, the company statement showed.

For the quarter ending March, profit fell 21% as it set aside money as provision for a Rs50 million loan to a loss-making unit Hind Lamps Ltd.

Shares in the firm, which dipped as much as 9.64% after the quarterly results were announced on 26 May, pared the losses in the later session and ended down 1.82%, in a Mumbai market that was up 2.28%.

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