Defence public sector undertakings Bharat Electronics Limited and Bharat Earth Movers Ltd have announced record dividends of 207 per cent and 120 per cent respectively even as corporate India reported a downswing in profitability.
 
Navratna defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has paid its highest ever dividend of 207 per cent for 2007-08. VVR Sastry, chairman and managing director of BEL, today presented a cheque of Rs89.21 crore, as the 147 per cent final dividend, to defence minister AK Antony.

In February 2008, the company had paid Rs36.41 crore as 60 per cent interim dividend.

BEL recorded a turnover of Rs4,102.54 crore and a profit after tax of Rs826.74 crore during 2007-08.

Mini Ratna defence public sector undertaking Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) has also declared a final dividend of 65 per cent for the financial year 2007-08, in addition to the interim dividend of 55 per cent already paid in March this year, taking the total dividend for the financial year ended March 2008 to 120 per cent.

BEML chairman and managing director VRS Natarajan today presented a  dividend cheque of Rs14.63 crore to defence minister AK Antony.

With this, BEML has paid a total of Rs27 crore to the government for the financial year 2007-08.

The payout is against the 54.03 per cent of the share capital held by the Government of India in the company.

The company posted a turnover of Rs2713.34 crore for 2007-08 with a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs348.01 crore and profit after tax of Rs225.65 crore and is now poised to achieve a sales turnover of Rs3,100 crore for the current year.

During the half-year ended 30 September 2008, BEML posted a turnover of Rs964.28 crore and a PBT of Rs49.96 crore.

The company's order book stood at Rs4,292 crore as of end-October 2008, the highest ever.