The Hindu Business Line : BEML profit before tax increases 11% at Rs 350 cr

Bangalore, April 2 BEML Ltd has closed fiscal 2007-08 with provisional 15.5 per cent higher sales of Rs 3,005 crore and profit before tax of Rs 350 crore up 11 per cent year-on-year.

The company announced 55 per cent interim dividend.

The defence PSU, with an order book of Rs 3,795 crore, expects 18-20 per cent growth during the current year, according to its CMD, Mr V. R. S. Natarajan.

Growth

“With sustainable potential for business growth in all business segments, in particular mining-construction and rail-and metro, BEML Ltd is poised to achieve 18 to 20 per cent growth on year-on-year basis,” he told at a media briefing here on Wednesday. It has a 50th-year target of reaching a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore by 2013.

The company is expected to sustain a net profit growth similar to the 9.6 per cent growth it saw in the previous year ended March 31, 2007.

Out of its planned capital expenditure of Rs 450 crore for three years, it has invested Rs 250 crore and the remaining is in the pipeline for machinery upgradation and others. Exports grew 132 per cent to Rs 257.72 crore.