VA Tech Wabag confident of 20-25% order book growth in FY14

Nachiket Kelkar
moneycontrol.com

Chennai-based VA Tech Wabag is confident of its order book growing at least 20-25 percent in the current financial year, helped by a pickup in orders for water treatment and waste water treatment plants in India and overseas markets. "We have a very robust pipeline...We are looking at growing the order book by at least 20-25 percent. Today the firm order book is over Rs 5,000 crore, plus we have the framework orders, where we have the orders but we are waiting for the LCs or the financial closure. That's another about Rs 1,100 crore," Rajiv Mittal, CEO, told moneycontrol.com in an interview. Two-thirds of the orders are from India and the rest are from overseas markets. Apart from India, Wabag is a market leader in Switzerland and also has orders from East Europe, Middle East and North Africa, and recently has entered new markets like Turkey and Philippines. Mittal expects the international business to grow over 15 percent. VA Tech Wabag's domestic business saw slow growth in FY2013, standalone sales grew just 4 percent. However, the company has received several orders in the current April-June quarter and is hopeful of building up on that. Last week, the company won an order worth Rs 325 crore from Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board, which includes construction of sewage treatment plants and pumping stations in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, with operations and maintenance for 7 years. A week before, it won two orders. It won a Rs 262 crore order to construct a water treatment plant at Sundarijal in Nepal in JV with Pratibha Industries. Wabag separately won an order worth nearly Rs 115 crore from Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board. Mittal said he is confident of an order intake of Rs 2,600-2,700 crore this year. "We have already done 35-40 percent of it. I am sure over the next two quarters, we will achieve it," he said. In 2010, Wabag signed an alliance agreement with Japan's Sumitomo Corp. The two are currently executing water de-salination project in Oman and there are a few other domestic projects too that are being developed. Mittal said the projects are related to water management but refused give more details saying they were either in bidding or negotiation stage. VA Tech Wabag shares were trading marginally up at Rs 463.10 on NSE in morning trade on Monday. Also Read: CAD to narrow in FY14, financing it is a concern, say Analysts nachiket.kelkar@network18online.com