State-run Engineers India (EIL) may acquire equity stake in the refinery and petrochemical projects where it is likely to give engineering and construction consultancy, its Chairman and Managing Director A K Purwaha said today.
"We will be looking at acquiring equity in projects for which we will be providing consultancy," he told reporters here.
EIL, an engineering consultancy company and engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contractor, has provided services to almost all of the refineries, petrochemical plants, oil and gas processing projects, pipeline, offshore platforms.
It is currently executing the 9-million tonnes Bhatinda refinery project for the joint venture of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Mittal Energy, and 6 million tonnes Bina refinery for a unit of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL).
"EIL is looking at diversification into water and waste management, city gas distribution, thermal and nuclear power, gas-based fertiliser projects, coal-to-liquid projects and steel plants," Purwaha said.
The company would like to pick up stake in any project for distribution of CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households (called city gas distribution) where it is providing project management consultancy (PMC), he said.
"We have signed a MoU with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GPSC)...We are likely to be bidding jointly in some of the cities," he said.
EIL has also signed a MoU with Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) for design, engineering and project management consultancy for execution of nuclear projects.
It is also working with Wipro Technologies to develop energy efficient and management products.
The company is targeting a $1-billion order book this fiscal. EIL bagged orders worth Rs 3,800 crore (over $800 million) in the in the first nine months of the fiscal, EIL Director (Finance) Ram Singh said.
As on December 31, the state-run company had a total order book of Rs 8,100 crore, three times its annual turnover.
EIL saw its net profit rise 10.25% to Rs 122.45 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2010.
Total income of the public sector enterprise increased to Rs 709.80 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 536.27 crore for the same period previous fiscal.
For the nine-month period ended December 31, 2010, net profit rose to Rs 358.95 crore from Rs 310.85 crore in the same period previous year.
Net income rose to Rs 1,676.74 crore in the nine-month period under review from Rs 1,353.46 crore during the same period last fiscal.
