L&T eyes 10% growth in sales from E&A biz in FY13

Mumbai, Jan 22: Riding high on the growth in electrical industry, engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is expecting a 10 per cent growth in sales from its electrical and automation business in the next financial year, a top executive has said.

L&T's electrical and automation (E&A) division is engaged in making switchgear products, switchboards, metering systems, petrol dispensing pumps and medical equipment. Besides, it offers products and systems solutions for automation and UPS-related projects.

The systems solutions cover a host of industry verticals like cement, metals, paper, oil & gas, water, power and food processing.

"We expect the electrical and automation business to grow by over 10 per cent in FY13 as we see improvement in infrastructure and power sectors among others," L&T Senior Vice-President and Head of Electrical and Automation Business S C Bhargava told PTI.

In FY11, E&A division's sales stood at Rs 3,850 crore and according to sources it is expected to touch Rs 4,500 crore in the current fiscal.

L&T launched around 10 products (including variants) at Elecrama-2012', an exhibition organised here from January 18-22 by IEEMA, the apex body of Indian electrical equipment industry.

"We have set a target to introduce at least seven to eight products (including variants) every year. We earmark a capex of Rs 100-150 crore every year to introduce new products as well as expanding manufacturing capacities," Bhargava said.

L&T has operations at different locations in India - two in Mumbai and one each in Ahmednagar, Mysore, Faridabad and Coimbatore.

The division's overseas business comprises. The division's overseas business comprises manufacturing units in China, Dubai as well as a joint venture in Saudi Arabia for producing and marketing switchboards and motor control centres. Besides, L&T has switchgear-making units in Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Australia.

"As of today, none of our capacities is under- utilised, and if you look at future demand, naturally we need to plan for expanding capacities and introduce new products and variants. The new products account for nearly 35 per cent of our sales," Bhargava said.

He said international sales contribute to nearly 25 per cent of total revenues of the electrical and automation division. "We will continue to grow sales in both the markets."

PTI