Bajaj Electricals has said that most of its EPC project sites, which were adversely impacted by the pandemic-induced lockdown in Q1 of FY21, are now operational.
“The outbreak of COVID-19 globally and in India has caused significant disturbances and slowdown of economic activity,” Bajaj Electricals said in a release. It added that the company’s operations were also impacted in Q1 of FY21 due to temporary suspension of manufacturing facilities, sales and distribution and execution of EPC contracts.
“However, the company has resumed operations at all its manufacturing units, branches and warehouses across the country. Most of the company’s EPC sites are also operational now,” the statement said. The business has normalised in this quarter which has resulted in positive EBIT for both consumer products and EPC segments, it added.
Commenting on the company’s performance during Q2 of FY21, Shekhar Bajaj, Chairman & Managing Director, Bajaj Electricals Ltd, said, “I am very pleased with our extremely strong performance this quarter. Our EPC segment has also recovered strongly in this quarter after being adversely affected due to hold up of project execution and billings. Further, we have maintained our strong focus on cashflows from operations in this quarter too, generating a healthy Rs.322 crore, thereby further reducing our debt significantly.”
Order Book
The outstanding order book position of Bajaj Electricals Ltd, as of October 1, 2020, stood at Rs.1,474 crore. Across its thee EPC verticals, this was distributed as: transmission line towers (Rs.482 crore or 33 per cent of total); power distribution (Rs.602 crore or 41 per cent) and illumination projects (Rs.390 crore or 26 per cent)
According to information independently available, the outstanding order book position of Bajaj Electricals has somewhat declined over the past year. As of October 2019, the order backlog was Rs.1,799 crore. Nearly half of this order book was from transmission line projects. This was followed by power distribution with 43 per cent and illumination with around 8 per cent.
It can be easily seen that there has been a significant growth in illumination projects over the past year with Bajaj Electricals’ outstanding order book position more than doubling between October 2019 and October this year.
Featured photograph shows a 220kV substation built by Bajaj Electricals Ltd for Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Ltd (RUMS) at Rewa in Madhya Pradesh.
