Bharat Electronics Plans for ₹700-Crore Capex for FY17-18

Public sector defence major Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) plans a capex of ₹700 crore for 2017-18. 

“The sanctioned amount is more, but planned spend is around ₹700 crore on two new plants at Anantapur and Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh,” said BEL’s Chairman & Managing Director M Gowtama.

At Nimmaluru village, near Machilipatnam, the company is building new advanced night vision products factory and plans are afoot to expand night vision devices business. At Anantapur, a dedicated defence systems integration complex at Palasamudram is planned. In addition to these plants, the company is also creating dedicated business groups to address home land security and smart city business. On the sales outlook for 2017-18, Gowtama said “Our aim is to cross ₹10,000 crore. During 2016-17, we clocked ₹8,825 crore. Currently our turnover from indigenous technology is 87 per cent and sales from defence business is 88 per cent.”

To clock more sales, “we plan to continue indigenisation efforts in line with Make in India. We plan to enhance capacity and create new test facilities for defence business and are pursuing new opportunities in solar, energy, homeland security, smart cities, smart cards and telecom,” he added.

On electronic voting machines (EVMs), Gowtama said EVMs made by BEL are safe and the Election Commission (EC) has placed an order for 17 lakh machines with a budget of ₹3,100 crore. “The EC has placed order of 8.5 lakh each with us (BEL) and ECIL. We are committed to supply the order by September 2018. For us revenue with tax comes to ₹1,500 crore and without tax it will be ₹1,300 crore.”

The company’s exports dipped 23.52 per cent to $65 million in FY17 as compared with $85 million in FY16. Gowtama attributed the fall to Reliance Defence failing to raise LoI. 

“Otherwise we could have achieved the last fiscal sales’ level,” he said. The company’s order book as on April 1 is at $82 million. This includes offset order book $15 million. “This year our thrust is on exports and offsets. Focus is on build to print, build to spec and buyer-nominated equipment.”

The company has drawn a three-year (2017-2020) research and development (R&D) plan.