Texmaco Rail & Engineering, currently the country’s largest wagon marker, is planning to foray into passenger mobility space, especially manufacturing metro coaches, in the next financial year.
The Kolkata-headquartered company, which has been making parts of metro rail and supplying these products to many global customers, is actively looking at both organic and inorganic opportunities in order to produce passenger coaches.
“Currently, we are manufacturing components for passenger coaches. We have plans to produce passenger coaches going ahead. We are looking at making metro coaches very soon. In India, there are huge requirements for metro coaches now,” Texmaco Rail & Engineering Executive Director and Vice Chairman Indrajit Mookerjee told businessline.
“We are looking at both organic and inorganic opportunities for producing coaches. We would be able to enter this market fast through any inorganic routes,” Mookerjee pointed out.
Notably, Texmaco Rail & Engineering last year acquired Saira Asia, which was a 100 per cent subsidiary of an European company. Saira makes high-end railway interiors.
“We are currently supplying these interior products to existing coach manufacturers like BEML Ltd. Ultimately, our plan is to make passenger coaches. We also need to get some credentials, and for that we are currently talking to many foreign companies,” Mookerjee said.
Texmaco Rail became India’s largest wagon maker after it had acquired Jindal Rail Infrastructure in July last year for a consideration of around ₹615 crore.
The company’s consolidated revenue from operations stood at ₹1,326 crore in the third quarter this fiscal, registering a 47.9 per cent year-on-year growth. EBITDA for the quarter stood at ₹139 crore, posting a 51.7 per cent y-o-y increase, with an EBITDA margin of 10.5 per cent.
The company said higher freight car deliveries drove its strong performance. In the third quarter this fiscal, the company delivered 2,714 freight cars, a 54.6 per cent increase from 1,756 in corresponding period last fiscal.