BEL eyes joint venture with Thales, Rafael

Bharat Electronics Limited is in discussion with global majors Thales and Rafael for floating separate joint ventures in the defence sector, its Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Kumar Datt said today.

Datt said the Bangalore-headquartered defence PSU is in dialogue with Thales of France on forming a joint venture in the area of civilian and select defence radars, adding, the pact is expected to be inked soon.

BEL is also in discussions with Israel's Rafael for floating a joint venture in the field of missile seekers and guidance electronics, he told reporters on the sidelines of Aero India 2011 here.

He said BEL has targeted a $300 million defence offset business in the next three to five years.

BEL logged sales of Rs 5,220 crore in 2009-10 and expects to cross the Rs 10,000 crore mark in 2012-13, Datt said.

"BEL exports are expected to be around $40 million 2010-11," he said.

As of February 1, the company has a order book of Rs 16,742 crore, a figure expected to go up to around Rs 18,000 crore by next month-end.

BEL currently spends six per cent of its sales turnover on research and development (R&D) and would scale this figure up to eight per cent in two-three years.

He said BEL expects to soon secure an order worth more than Rs 500 crore to deliver coastal surveillance radars.