Budget 2001: A Primer

The company closed the year with a turnover which has more than doubled toRs 284 crore compared to Rs 99.2 crore in the last nine months of theprevious year and a profit before tax of Rs 11.9 crore as against a ninemonth loss of Rs 26.8 crore in the previous year.

Addressing newspersons on Tuesday soon after the company's board ofdirectors meeting, APIL's country president Krishna Pillai said though thecompany has pursued a number of large projects, these have not reachedfinancial closure. Future prospects are directly linked to the developmentof the power sector in the country and achievement of large project ordersremains a concern, he added.

Commenting on his company's turnaround during 2000, Dr Pillai said this wasdue to a sales push, sound project management acceleration of correspondingrevenues and implementation of aggressive cost reduction programmes (thestaff strength during 1999-2000 was reduced by over 20 per cent).

"The order booking of Rs 539.6 crore in the period gives a sound orderbacklog of Rs 887.7 crore at the beginning of this year and the managementis confident of moving from consolidation to improving performance in thecoming years," he added.

Giving details of the major orders booked for the current year, Mr Pillaisaid APIL has got orders of Rs 163.8 crore for the 156 mw combined cyclepower plant from Gujarat state energy generation, a Rs 220.5 crorerenovation and modernisation order from Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board(MPEB) and a Rs 9 crore industrial turbine order from Tata Sponge IronLtd.

The company performed extremely well in the quarter ended December 31, 2000when it registered a profit of nearly Rs 16 crore. The net profit for theyear stood at Rs 12 crore on a sales turnover of Rs 284 crore.

It may be noted here that the previous year quarter figures are notcomparable since the effective date of demerger and transfer of powergeneration business of Asea Brown Boveri Ltd to Alstom Power was December 11999 with the appointed date of April 1, 1999.