With cash in hand of about Rs 965 crore, Pune-based Thermax expects high revenue growth this fiscal. At the current order book of Rs 6,330 crore, MD and CEO, MS Unnikrishnan is confident that the order book this fiscal will be better than the previous year. In an interview with FE?s Smita Joshi Saha, Unnikrishnan talks about the company?s growth plans and the strategy that helped it post 42% y-o-y growth in net profit to Rs 66.2 crore for the first quarter this fiscal. Excerpts:

What led to the growth in top line and bottom line in first quarter?

The top line and bottom line increased due to strong growth in the energy and environment segment.

We had a good amount of carry forward orders in these two segments. The execution was also good and we witnessed excellent off take, which resulted in good numbers during the quarter for us. The energy segment contributed to about 77%, while the environment segment 23% to the company?s revenues.

You have forayed into the utility boiler business through your JV with Babcock & Wilcox (B&W). When will revenues flow in from this segment?

We will start bidding for orders through our JV from the third quarter this fiscal. Revenue will start flowing in only from fiscal 2013 forwards. Capacity of around 3,000 mw will come in the fifth year of operation. This will add about Rs 3,000-crore plus to our top line .

Analysts are apprehensive as the company takes on large size boilers and EPC contracts because the execution period is long. Your comments.

We are not taking too many large orders. There is a mixture of small and medium orders, along with the large orders to mitigate the risk. Our JV with B&W will have large orders coming in. As an individual company, we will have a mix bag of orders.

Can you update us on your export business?

We have international sales service network in South East Asia, West Asia, Africa, Russia, the US and the UK. We have subsidiaries in the US and the UK. We have also set up a greenfield facility for absorption of chillers in China in 2008. We have a fairly strong focus on exports.

Our international business is flat as the recovery has not happened in other countries except China and India. We are a long-term player in the international market.

We are focusing on the opportunities in the energy and environment space that is growing in the West Asia and Asian markets, especially China.

What is the planned capex?

We plan to spend about Rs 500 crore over two years. Of this, Rs 200 crore will go as an equity participation for our JV with B&W.

We are setting up a speciality chemical factory in Jhagadia Gujarat, where we will spent Rs 84 crore and the remaining will be spent on an assembly facility for the air pollution control business group in Solapur (Maharashtra).

What is the status on your bidding for the NTPC tender for boilers?

We are getting our JV done with B&W soon and if this matches with the NTPC execution requirement, then we will certainly bid for it via the JV.