BEL turnover up at Rs5,550 crore in 2010-11

Defense PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has posted  a sales turnover of  Rs5,550 crore in 2010 - 11 (provisional) as against Rs5,220 crore in 2009 - 10, registering a growth of 6.3 per cent.

According to BEL chairman and managing director, Ashwani Kumar Datt, the estimated profit before tax stood at Rs1,120 crore as against Rs1,045 crore in 2009 -10. He added that audited results were still awaited.

The company's export turnover increased 77 per cent from $23.65 million in 2009 - 10 to $41.89 million during 2010-11, Datt added.

Datt said the company would increase civil orders to nearly 25 per cent and cut defence orders by another 5 per cent from the current 80 per cent.

''All nine units of BEL have continued to achieve profits,'' he said and added that the turnover from indigenously developed products had rose to 78 per cent.  The company has set aside Rs3.5 billion for R&D.

Projecting that the next fiscal would be better, Datt said; ''I would prefer if the Q4 results are lower than the previous years. But the other three quarters must perform better than the previous years,'' he said.

Datt said the company is aiming to reach a turnover of Rs62.0 billion during 2011-12.