Lokesh Machines Limited, a Hyderabad-based manufacturer of machines tools and automotive components, will be setting up a six-cylinder heads production line for Mahindra & Mahindra’s Navistar trucks, at the latter’s Pune plant with an outlay of Rs 10 crore. Targeted at the export markets, the Navistar trucks will be rolled out from M&M’s stable in the next five months.
“We will temporarily start the production from our Hyderabad facility now. Once tested and proven, we will shift the production line to M&M’s Pune manufacturing plant in the next six months,” M Lokeswara Rao, managing director of Lokesh Machines, told Business Standard.
Lokesh Machines currently supplies 600 cylinder blocks for M&M’s light commercial vehicles, jeeps and trucks a day, and close to 60,000 heads and blocks to Ashok Leyland a year.
With the automobile industry taking a hit due to the recession last year, Lokesh Machines saw a dip in its net profit to Rs 37 lakh (Rs 28 crore in FY08) on a total income of Rs 74.04 crore in FY09. Supplies to M&M and Ashok Leyland contribute 35 per cent to Lokesh Machines overall revenues.
“M&M and Ashok Leyland have recovered completely from the recessionary effect from March 2009. We are now confident of reaching our FY08 net revenues of Rs 109 crore this financial year,” Rao said.
Lokesh Machines’ scrip ended the trade at Rs 44.65 on the BSE on Wednesday, up 10.25 per cent as against the previous close of Rs 40.50.