BHEL Q1 net rises 22% to Rs 816 cr

State-run power equipment major BHEL today reported an over 22% jump in net profit to Rs 816 crore for the three months ended June, helped by higher sales and better cost management efforts.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) raked in a profit of Rs 668 crore in the first quarter a year ago.

The company's sales in the first quarter of the current fiscal climbed to Rs 7,433 crore from Rs 6,761 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a statement.

The good quarterly profit has been mainly attributed to increased sales and prudential cost management efforts, especially in tackling material expenses.

"With this, BHEL has maintained its track record of earning profits uninterruptedly for nearly four decades without a break... BHEL's turnover has increased by three times and net profit by four times in the last five years," the statement noted.

At the end of the first quarter, the public sector entity had an order book position of Rs 1,59,600 crore.

In the previous fiscal, BHEL had posted a profit of Rs 6,011 crore and also saw managed to reduce material costs by as much as 5.22%.

BHEL expects to augment its manufacturing capacity to 20,000 MW per annum.

As part of its disinvestment programme, the government plans to offload a 5% stake in BHEL through a follow-on public offer that is likely to take place this fiscal.