Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd is in talks with General Electric and Westinghouse Electric to jointly build nuclear power plants in the country.
NEW DELHI: Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd Ltd. is in talks with General Electric and Westinghouse Electric to jointly build nuclear power plants in the country, chairman Atul Punj said.
“We are in talks with manufacturers like GE, Westinghouse to partner with them on construction of nuclear plants,” he told Reuters on Friday on sidelines of a news conference.
“The areas where we do not have significant qualifications are nuclear plants,” he said.
Since a civilian nuclear cooperation deal was signed by India and the United States in 2005, several US nuclear technology firms have expressed interest in partnering Indian companies to set up nuclear power plants. “This is just a step ahead in the company’s value chain, and given its execution skills, it does not surprise me,” said Jonas Bhutta, an analyst with HDFC Securities Ltd.
GE India’s outgoing head, Scott Bayman, joined Punj Lloyd’s board as an independent director from Friday, the company said.
Punj said the company, which earns more than 50% of its revenues from outside the country, was aggressively looking for opportunities in the infrastructure and power sectors.
“Whether it is gas, thermal, nuclear or hydel (hydroelectric) we are looking at all the different segments in the power space,” he said.
Punj Lloyd would raise Rs 500 crore in the year to March 31, 2008, to help meet its order backlog, and had marked another Rs 500 crore for capital expenditure.
The company’s order backlog as of March 31 was Rs 15,940 crore.
“Average size of our order book has gone up to $100 million today. We are trying to raise the minimum ticket size of our order book,” Punj said.
Shares in the company ended up 2.2% at Rs 220.95, not far off a record hit of Rs 224.88 hit last December, Punj said the company had formed a joint venture with a private firm to offer drilling rigs to the Indian exploration industry, aiming to meet some of the global shortage of rigs.
“Starting with onshore (rigs), we expect to migrate to offshore at a later date,” he said, adding the company’s initial investment would be Rs 40 crore.
The joint venture would compete with offshore services players such as Aban Offshore and Shiv-Vani Oil & Gas Exploration Ltd, Punj said.
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