HAL gets LoI for 9 helicopters from Indian Coast Guard; stock rallies 7%

Shares of Hindustan Aeronautics jumped 7 per cent to hit an all-time high of Rs 2,697.70 on the BSE in Wednesday’s intra-day trade amid heavy volumes after the company received a letter of intent (LoI) for nine more advanced light helicopters (ALH) Mk-III from the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).

The stock of the state-owned aerospace & defense company has surpassed its previous high of Rs 2,639 touched on September 12, 2022. The trading volumes on the counter jumped four-fold with a combined 3.23 million shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE, till 01:31 pm.

So far in calendar year 2022, the stock price of HAL has zoomed 123 per cent as compared to a 4.8 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

HAL on Tuesday announced that it has handed over the last of the 16 ALH Mk-III to ICG. In March 2017, HAL had signed a contract worth around Rs 5,126 crore for the supply of 16 ALHs to ICG.

ALH Mk III is indigenously designed, developed and produced by HAL. The company has so far produced more than 330 ALHs, a versatile helicopter which has logged more than 3.74 lakhs of flying hours, the company said in media release.

ICICI Securities expects HAL to receive this contract of nine more ALHs in the next six months as ICG has only signed an LoI. With the new Tumkur (Karnataka) facility expected to get commissioned in Q3FY23, HAL will have the capacity to produce 60 helicopters per year, which can be ALH, light combat helicopters (LCH ) or light utility helicopters (LUH ).

HAL has an order book of Rs 83,858 crore as of September 2022 (3.2x TTM revenues) with an order pipeline of Rs 50,000 crore for the next 1-1.5 years, which would include this order and other helicopter orders like 25 ALHs for Army and six LUH each for the IAF & Army, the brokerage said in a note.

Meanwhile, the stock of HAL will turn ex-date for interim dividend of Rs 20 on Friday, November 18. The company has fixed Monday, November 21 as the record date for the payment of the first interim dividend.