Shekhar Bajaj-led Bajaj Electricals today said it is upbeat on its engineering and projects business and is eyeing Rs 1,000 crore from this segment.
"By March, 2012, we intend to grow the engineering and projects (business) to Rs 1,000 crore," Bajaj Electricals Chairman and Managing Director Shekhar Bajaj told PTI here.
Engineering and projects had contributed Rs 830 crore in 2010-11.
The company also plans to diversify into solar energy, he said. "We intend to move into solar power-based lighting solutions," he said.
On rural electrification, he said the company is aiming to electrify a million households which are below the poverty line. "We have already undertaken some projects in West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh," Bajaj said.
The company got into rural electrification two years ago and is eyeing the 'million households' target over the next two years.
The company, a leading player in fans and appliances, witnessed significant cost pressures due to high commodity prices of copper and aluminium. However, it passed on the price hikes in fans and appliances to its customers with a view to shore-up its margins, he said.
The company clocked a 22.8% growth in its net profit in FY11 at Rs 143.8-crore as against Rs 117.1 crore in the year-ago period.
Its board recommended a dividend of 140% for the year ended March 31, 2011 as against 120% in the previous year.
The company's gross turnover stood at Rs 2,763 crore, a 22.9% growth over the last year. Its net sales income from operations for the financial year 2010-11 grew 23% at Rs 2,741 crore as against Rs 2,229 crore in the year-ago period, the release said.
Its profit before tax improved by 9.1% to Rs 218.9 crore, as against Rs 200.6 crore in 2009-10.
In Q4 FY11, net sales income from operations grew by 24.9% at Rs 979.4 crore as against Rs 784 crore in the year-ago period.
Profit before tax improved by 10.8% to Rs 89.1 crore as against Rs 80.4 crore in the year-ago period, while its net profit in Q4 FY11 grew by 53.4% to Rs 57.5 crore, against a net profit of Rs 37.5 crore in the corresponding period of 2009-10.
In comparison to the previous year, the engineering and projects business unit grew by 12.8% at Rs 831 crore.
The appliances business grew by 32.4% to cross the Rs 765 crore mark in sales turnover, while the fans business unit grew by 35.9%, lighting business by 21.1% and luminaries business by 14.7%.
"The fourth quarter witnessed a 24.9% growth in revenues and a 9.9% EBIT. It was a difficult quarter, with significant margin pressures due to commodity pressures.
We have taken the right pricing decisions along with focus on profitable growth. The demand for all our products continues to be robust," Bajaj said.
