BEL eyes defence offsets as a growth area

Bangalore: Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) expects to benefit significantly from the government's defence offset policy, said company chairman and managing director Ashwani Kumar Datt here on Tuesday. Defence offsets will be a key growth area for the state-owned defence electronics giant, which produces everything from solar –powered panels to radars to air-to- surface missiles. 

Addressing the media to discuss the company's performance in the fiscal 2010-11, Datt said BEL expected to get about 8 per cent of the anticipated total defence offset business of $3-5 billion in the next 3-5 years. ''Defence offsets will remain a key growth area for BEL,'' he said.

BEL's provisional sales turnover amounted to Rs5,550 crores in 2010-11, compared to Rs5,220 crore in the previous year, an increase of 6.3 per cent. The pre-tax profit amounted to Rs1,120 crore, an increase of 7 per cent.

Exports increased to $41.89 million from $23.65 million, an increase of 77 per cent.

Datt said the sharp increase in the company's order book position, from Rs11,350 crore at the end of 2009-10 to Rs23,600 crore at the end of 2010-11, would enable BEL to make plans for the future.

The company had an export order book of $66.3 million and an offset order book of $42.28 million at the end of the last fiscal.