Current order book is over Rs 9000cr: KEC International

5592 Investors following KEC Int. Share this News with them.

0

Like this story, share it with millions of investors on M3

Current order book is over Rs 9000cr: KEC International

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Vardhan Dharkar, chief financial officer of KEC International says, the company’s current order book is over Rs 9,000 crore.

Post your opinion here

 

0

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

ALSO READ See latest News about KEC Int See previous management interviews See what other Experts & Brokerages are saying about KEC Int KEC Int BSE | NSE 30/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on KEC Int?

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Vardhan Dharkar, chief financial officer of KEC International says, the company's current order book is over Rs 9,000 crore. "We are sitting on a very robust order book of almost Rs 9,000 crore plus. It is well diversified, both geography wise as well as business wise," he adds.

Below is the edited transcript of his interview with CNBC-TV18's Reema Tendulkar and Ekta Batra. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: Can you take us through the new order, which you've won, worth around Rs 340 crores? What does this take your entire transmission line, order book two? When do you start executing this particular order?

A: We are very happy to announce that we have received one more order in India. This order is important from the perspective that it has come from a private customer Sterlite. That's also one more dimension to the order book.

We are sitting on a very robust order book of almost Rs 9,000 crore plus. It is well diversified, both geography wise as well as business wise. Almost 65% of our order book today comprises transmission and the balance 35% comprises the power system, railway, water, telecom, and cables.

Geography wise, almost 20% of our order book today is coming from America and almost 20% from Middle East and Africa.

Q: Are these new orders coming in on lower margins perhaps on account of rising competition?

A: Margins are more or less ok. Today, my transmission order book would have margins in the region of 9-10%. So, it's not that the margins are extremely low. But yes competition has been there and it will continue to be there.

Q: You mentioned that Sterlite Technologies is a private customer and that is a bit of a data point that you are working with which is significant. Can you take us through what the importance of a private customer giving you an order at this point, what is the relevance of that?

A: If you look at KEC's customer base, almost 90% of our customer base comprises government owned utility companies, both in India as well as outside of India. Slowly, in India, now the transmission lines are being privatised and are owned by the private customers.

In that context, this is a shift that is taking place. Getting an order from private customer is enhancing my customer base. So, not only now I am catering to the government customers or government owned utilities companies, but I am also now catering to the private sector. That's the difference. That's something which is going to be more and more the case in future.

Q: Are a lot of bids opening up for new orders? What might you bag perhaps in the next three months?

A: There are many orders in pipeline. We are bidding for fairly good number of projects. We expect that our order book as we end the year on March will continue to show a good growth. It will maintain the momentum that we have established in the recent past.