By IANS,
Chennai : Chennai based water treatment multi-national company (MNC) Va Tech Wabag Ltd. is betting big on desalination water projects across globe as part of efforts to restructure its business units, said a senior company official.
The company closed last fiscal with a consolidated revenue of Rs.1,443.5 crore and an after-tax profit of Rs.73.7 crore — up from Rs.1,241.8 crore and Rs.52.6 crore respectively during 2010-11.
“We see desalination water business a big opportunity across the globe and hence formed a separate vertical focusing on this line. We are also focusing on operation and maintenance (O&M) space. Effective from this April, our businesses have been restructured into four lines – municipal water, industrial water, desalination water and O&M,” S.Varadarajan, executive director-finance, told reporters here Friday.
According to him each business segment would look at the global market as against the earlier arrangement where the international business was looked after by a separate business unit.
The rejig is part of the company’s efforts to touch a revenue figure of one billion euro in five years’ time.
According to Rajiv Mittal, managing director, the company’s O&M revenue is expected to grow in the future, which in turn would provide better predictability and stability of revenues.
He said at the end of last fiscal the company has strategic cash balance of Rs.400 crore, which will be used for acquiring companies that can provide new technology or market.
“Nearly 70 percent of our target revenue of one billion euro is expected from organic growth and the balance 30 percent through acquisitions. Acquisitions will be outside India as there are no domestic companies that can add value to us,” Mittal added.
According to Mittal, the company is set to book Rs.400 crore order during the first quarter of the current fiscal.
He said the proposed new orders and the backlog of orders worth Rs.3,731 crore would keep the company busy for the next two years.
Stating that there is greater interest in desalination projects in several Indian states, Mittal said the company would commission the desalination project here by September this year.
Va Tech Wabag has bagged a Rs.1,033-crore order to design, erect and operate a 100-million litre per day desalination plant from Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, commonly known as ChennaiMetro Water.
According to Mittal, the project is 88 percent complete and the remaining work will be completed soon.
The board of Va Tech Wabag Thursday, approving the last fiscal’s accounts, has recommended a dividend of Rs.6 per equity share of Rs.2 each.