Blue Star Says Order Book At All-Time High, Need To Hasten Execution
Government payments have been very slow, says Blue Star’s Executive Director B Thiagarajan.
Blue Star Ltd.’s order book was at a “historic high” in the quarter ended September, but the air conditioner maker needs to speed up execution, according to its Executive Director B Thiagarajan.
“Our order book is very healthy at an all-time high of Rs 2,535 crore. It is 32 percent higher than what it was last year,” Thiagarajan told BloombergQuint in an interview. “What I will be concerned about is the speed of execution.”
“If you are focusing on (cutting) borrowings, the speed of execution is going to suffer,” he said. “We are clearly focused on working capital. We have brought down borrowings significantly.”
Government payments have been very slow, he said. “We are looking forward to a situation where the speed of government payments improves since we execute a lot of government orders.”
Earnings Highlights: (Year-On-Year)
- Execution of healthy order book aided revenue growth in electro-mechanical projects segment.
- Revenue up 21.1 percent to Rs 1,249.5 crore.
- Net profit up 93.4 percent to Rs 37.9 crore.
- Ebitda up 26.7 percent to Rs 73.6 crore.
- Margin at 5.9 percent versus 5.6 percent.