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ABB aims to join billion-dollar club

K. T. Jagannathan

Good order book; sees opportunities in power and industrial sectors

CHENNAI: ABB India, a leader in power and automation technologies, is aiming to join the $1 billion (Rs. 4,500 crore) club in two to three years.

In an interaction with The Hindu, Ravi Uppal, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, said ABB India could breach the $1 billion-mark even before 2007 judging by the current order intake position. The company reported revenue of Rs. 2,012.50 crore in the nine-month period ended September 2005, up from Rs. 1,543.40 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The order intake grew by 44 per cent to Rs. 2,747.90 crore for the nine-month period compared to the same period in 2004. For the third quarter of 2005, it grew by 40 per cent to Rs. 916 crore compared to the same quarter in 2004.

Based on the accelerated order intake during the past few quarters, order backlog has strengthened further to Rs. 2,075.20 crore from Rs. 1,335.60 crore at the beginning of 2005.

"We would like to maintain a 25-30 per cent growth year-on-year,'' Mr. Uppal said. In this context, he said the company was in the midst of a Rs. 500-crore capital expenditure programme, extending up to the year 2007.

This involved adding new lines and augmenting capacity, he added.

The company was now giving more focus on services (asset management and the like), where the margins were better. The revenue split between the power and automation technologies was 60:40. The ratio would become 50:50 within the next couple of years, he added. Mr. Uppal sounded optimistic about the prospects for his company. This stemmed from an assortment of factors ranging from a good order book position to the continuing `feel good' factor in the economy and the robust growth in power and industrial sectors.

The Vice-Chairman saw opportunity for ABB what with many steel plants going in for creation of capacities either through expansion or setting up greenfield projects. "About 60 per cent of electrical and automation work in the steel sector was done by ABB,'' he pointed out.

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