'Expect better numbers ahead'

Sumant Sinha, COO, Suzlon Energy, says efforts are on to reduce debt and boost other numbers...

Where does the order book stand now? How much did you add in the first quarter?
In the first quarter, we signed orders for more than 500 Mw.. overall, the order book at Suzlon has been reasonably diverse. The current order book right now is 1,500 Mw and RE Power has got 1,231 Mw, so, on a consolidated basis, our total order books stand at about 2,800 Mw.

Is there overall pressure on pricing now?
Overcapacity created in the turbine industry will certainly pull down prices. The good news is, because our cost of production is also going down, we won’t face margin pressures.

What’s the update on the blade retrofit programme?
It’s pretty much behind us. We are already supplying blades to RE Power and China.

What is the fund situation now within the company?
Last month, we did a GDR issue of $108 million. We also did a convertible fund raising of about $195 million. We have about Rs 13,000 crore of net debt. We are making significant headway in terms of managing our business much better.

Your expectation for FY10 in order flows and also top and bottom line?
We are planning to sign a few 100 Mw of orders for this year... we have four-five months to do. We are hopeful that as the markets pick up, we can do that.

On the top line, we would do about 15 per cent less than what we did last year, but we do expect to have significant better profitability numbers than last year.