Bharat Earth Movers net up 19 percent

State-run Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) posted net profit of Rs.268 crore in fiscal 2008-09 as against Rs.225 crore the year before, registering growth of 19 percent, the listed company said Thursday.

Net sales, however, grew by 10 percent to Rs.2,797 crore last fiscal from Rs.2,540 crore in 2007-08.

For the fourth quarter of the fiscal, net profit shot up by 45 percent to Rs.172 crore from Rs.118 crore a year ago. Net sales too increased by 21.5 percent to Rs.1,262 crore from Rs.1040 crore.

Exports grew by 51 percent to Rs.304 crore for the entire fiscal from Rs.201 crore in the previous fiscal.

"Mining and construction business continues to be our mainstay, accounting for 61 percent (Rs.1,841 crore) of the sales, while defence business contributed about 20 percent (Rs.595 crore) and rail and metro business 16 percent (Rs.476 crore)," BEML chairman V.R.S. Natarajan told reporters here.

"We have a healthy order book of Rs.5,036 crore for this fiscal and coming years."

The company in which the government holds 54 percent equity share has maintained a dividend of 120 percent for fiscal 2009, same as the previous fiscal. The remaining equity is held by institutional and retail investors.

"We are setting a target of Rs.4,000 crore for this fiscal as none of our business divisions were impacted by slowdown. We have a healthy order book that includes Rs.3,100 crore from metro and railways for supply of coaches and wagons, Rs.1500 crore from mining and construction and Rs.590 crore from the defence sector," Natarajan said.

The company plans to make a capital expenditure of Rs.410 crore this fiscal on plant and machinery, including a greenfield project at Palakkad in Kerala. The plant, to be commissioned next fiscal will manufacture defence and rail products.

"We have also set up an aerospace division to manufacture and supply ground-handling equipment, toolings and components for aerospace applications in defence and civilian areas," Natarajan noted.

The company has secured an order valued at Rs.1,672 crore from Bangalore Metro Rail Corp for supply of 150 standard gauge metro cars.

"In addition, we have orders from Delhi Metro and Indian Railways for supply of metro coaches and wagons valued at Rs.1,400 crore," he added.

Last updated on Jul 9^th, 2009 at 20:56 pm IST--IANS