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Walchandnagar eyes acquisitions, joint ventures By Virendra Verma

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Heavy engineering firm Walchandnagar Industries Ltd is looking for acquisitions and is open to engineering joint ventures with foreign companies, a top official said on Monday.

"We are looking for acquisition of hi-tech companies, either in India or abroad, in engineering-related business," Chirag C. Doshi, managing director, told Reuters.

He said the company, which makes components for nuclear reactors, satellites and power plants, has an order book of around 10 billion rupees to be executed by the financial year ending September 2009.

The century-old firm is seeking partnerships with foreign companies either through joint ventures or technology sharing in new areas within the engineering business, Doshi said.

The company also plans to enter the oil & gas sector by making equipment for oil rigs, he said.

"We are looking at a facility near a port for manufacturing and installation of rigs and allied structures," he said, adding the firm is in talks with one of the largest oil & gas equipment manufacturers in the US, but declined to name the company.

Doshi said the company would have a slow start in this business and will initially make small parts for on-shore rigs.

To fund the expansion and acquisitions, it is raising up to 5.5 billion rupees through placement of shares to institutional investors and up to 3.36 billion rupees through issue of warrants, convertible into shares, to the founders.

In the next 18 months, the company would have 7-8 billion rupees for expansion and for venturing into new areas, he said.

"This gives us a war chest to get into new areas of business that are not unrelated," Doshi said. "If we want to grow at a faster rate than the industry then we have to expand and enter new areas."

Walchandnagar reported a 168 percent rise in net profit to 355.6 million rupees on revenues of 6.34 billion rupees for the financial year ended September 2007.

Shares in the firm, which has risen over 650 percent since beginning of 2007, were up 5 percent at 6,597.65 rupees.

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Monday February 18, 03:30 PM Bottom fishing at close...
By Equitymaster.com



While the broader markets continued to remain subdued in the second half of the session as well, selective buying interest was seen in some index heavyweights. Buying activity was restricted to select commodity, banking and FMCG stocks in the closing hours, while auto and software stocks featured among the key losers. As regards global markets, while the Asian indices closed a mixed bag, the European indices are witnessing a positive trend currently.

The BSE Sensex closed at 18,048 (down 67 points) while the NSE Nifty closed at 5,277 (down 26 points). The rupee was trading at 39.71 to the dollar.

The broader markets languished in the red throughout the session today. Despite sporadic attempts of recovery mid-way through the day's proceedings, the indices remained below Friday's closing levels. However, the lack of investor interest was restricted to the frontline stocks. Both the BSE Midcap as well as the BSE Smallcap indices, closed higher by nearly 1%. The overall market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers by a ratio of 2:1 on the Sensex. M&M, ITC (both up 4%) and Hindalco (up 3%) led the pack of gainers on the Sensex today, while Satyam (down 3%) and Tata Motors (down 2%) led the pack of losers.

Power generation major NTPC is planning to recruit about 3,500 personnel in the next three years. The move is because the company will be enhancing its capacity from the present 28,000 MW to 55,000 MW by the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (FY12) and, therefore, needs adequate trained manpower for the same. Moreover, the need to increase the manpower has been felt in view of the company diversifying into nuclear, hydel, thermal and renewable energy generation, along with power transmission, power trading and coal mining. At present, NTPC has a total headcount of about 25,000. The public sector undertaking adds 400 to 500 personnel every year through general recruitment. NTPC is also targeting to increase the capacity to 75,000 MW by 2017. Shortage of trained manpower has been a key concern for the growth of engineering companies in recent times. The stock of NTPC (marginally up) along with its peer Tata Power (TTPW.BO, news) (up 2%) ended in the positive.

Engineering stocks closed a mixed bag. While Voltas (up 3%) and Siemens (2%) found favour, selling pressure took its toll on BHEL (down 2%) and L&T (1%). Engineering major BHEL (BHEL.BO, news) has secured a Rs 6.5 bn contract from General Electricity Company of Libya for setting up a 300 MW gas turbine-based power plant on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis. This is an extension of the 600 MW western mountain power project, which was also constructed by BHEL. This is a positive for BHEL given that its 'Power' division accounts for around 75% of total sales. This division recorded a healthy growth of 19% YoY in 3QFY08 led by execution of a part of the huge existing backlog plus strong order inflows during the third quarter. At the end of December 2007, BHEL's order backlog stood at Rs 780 bn (4.5 times FY07 sales), which indicates strong visibility into the future.

Allegations of rigging, low voter turnout undermine Pak polls

Balloting got off to a slow start on Monday in Pakistan`s crucial general election as voters appeared to be wary of violence. The opposition accused the government of rigging the poll which is viewed as a litmus test for beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf. Clashes between political workers, forcible stamping of ballots at a handful of polling stations in Sindh and Punjab provinces and two blasts in Balochistan capital Quetta were reported.

BHEL bags Rs 650 cr order in Libya

New Delhi, Feb 18: Power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd on Monday said it has secured a Rs 650 crore order for setting up a 300 MW gas turbine-based power plant in Libya.

The order, to be executed on engineering, procurement and construction basis, has been placed by general electricity company of Libya for expansion of the 600 MW Western Mountain Power Project, Bhel said in a statement.

Bhel had recently completed execution of the Rs 1,400 crore project, the largest gas turbine-based power project installed by the company so far.

The present contract for extension of western mountain power project envisages setting up two gas-turbine units of 150 MW each.

The equipment for the 300 MW order would be supplied from Bhel`s manufacturing facilities at Haridwar, Bhopal, Jhansi, Bangalore, Chennai and Ranipet, the company said.

Bureau Report

M&M ties up with Italian firm

New Delhi, Feb 18: Homegrown farm equipment-to- software group Mahindra & Mahindra today signed an agreement for a joint venture with Italy's Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (WASS) for developing underwater weapon systems.

The agreement was signed between M&M's defence arm Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS) and WASS, the maritime underwater subsidiary of 12-billion-dollar Finmeccanica group.

The two firms would jointly explore the possibility of developing underwater weapon systems for Indian and foreign markets.

"The JV would initially develop underwater weapon systems for the Indian market, but in the long run we have our eyes set on the global market as well," M&M Vice Chairman and Managing Director Anand Mahindra told reporters at the defence expo.

He said presently, the Indian market for underwater weapon systems stands at around 500 million dollars.

Mds, which is primarily into land defence systems like bulletproof vehicles, is aggressively looking at diversifying into other peripheries, Mahindra said.

"The total Indian market for land systems stands at five billion dollars, in which we intend to have a share of around 60 per cent or three billion dollars," Mahindra said.

Bureau Report

Birla Sun Life launches new fund

Chandigarh, Feb 18: Birla Sun Life asset management on Monday announced the launch of new diversified equity scheme "pure value fund" here.

"The main objective of this scheme is to generate long term growth of capital by investing in a portfolio of equity and equity related securities. The fund will invest 85 percent of proceeds in equity and remaining 15 percent in fixed income securities," Birla Sun Life asset management, manager equities, Hemang Dagli told reporters here today.

"Sharp corrections in Indian markets have dented investor confidence but investors need to understand that value is created only by investing in right businesses at right time," he said.

Birla Sun Life asset management is having Rs 31000 crore as assets under management and investor base of over 15 lakh.