Thermax Ltd, the Pune-based environment and energy solutions provider, sees revenues staying flat or even declining during the current fiscal due to weak credit environment and slow pace of project implementation, though it sees new orders growing 10-15%.
M S Unnikrishnan, managing director, Thermax, said, “In the last few quarters some orders either got cancelled or didn’t get finalised due to the global slowdown. As a result, the growth in order inflow was not as good as it should have been. As a result, the topline has suffered.”
He said the execution period of an order ranges from one quarter to four quarters and sometimes even extends to the next year, therefore, any effect of a slowdown is reflected on the subsequent topline performance.
Thermax’s order inflow for the first quarter of the current fiscal stood at Rs 1,002 crore, out of which Rs 762 crore was from the energy division and Rs 239 crore from environment.
For the quarter ended June 2009, the company’s revenues dropped 26% at Rs 537 crore, while thenet profit fell 27% to Rs 46.4 crore. Unnikrishnan said sales drop was due to lower order inflow in the third quarter of the last fiscal.He said though the exportmarket is not expected to revive in the short term, the domestic market is showing positive signs. The company is witnessing a number of enquiries from the cement, food processing and petrochem industries.
“Another growth area is going to be municipal waste water treatment where we ventured into recently,” Unnikrishnan said. He said the company tied up with GE for bringing in some special technology for waste water and sewage treatment.
Though Thermax is not expecting any major orders from state corporations in the current year, order booking is expected to pick up slowly. The company is present in close to 50% of services under the water and sewage treatment segment.
“We will go for projects where funds are available under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission,” he said.
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