HAL board to be recast by April 1

The company has plans in place to invest Rs 7,000 cr over the next three years

Bengaluru-headquartered state-owned defence undertaking HAL, which is planning to go public, is in the process of restructuring its board. The company has already received an approval from the government for the process, which is expected to be completed by April this year, top officials of the company said.

“We have prepared the company externally and internally in this regard. The company is planning for the future. I am sure the valuation of the company is going to be very relevant," R K Tyagi, Chairman, HAL, who is demitting office at the end of the month told reporters, here today.

Tyagi added, the company's dream was to see itself as a ‘Maharatna’ which has over 5,000 patents; a company fully responsive to any of the needs of the defence sector both in the domestic and export markets.

Responding to a question on disinvestment, Ashok Tandon, Executive Director of HAL, said: “Disinvestment process is in progress. There were a couple of issues. One, was the restructuring of the board for which we have got approval from the government. It will be in place by April 1, 2015.”

The other, he added was that of sharing confidential information with the book-running lead manager which it had to sort out.

On the restructuring, he said: "Now we have nine whole time directors, six independent and two government directors. The revised structure provides for five whole time directors, including CMD, two government nominee directors and seven independent directors."

Tyagi said the company will invest Rs 7,000 crore over the next few years on expansion. The company has invested Rs 3,000 crore in the last three years.

“We have chalked out plan for various projects that includes a trainer HTT40, fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), Multi-role Transport Aircraft (MTA), medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and 25 kN aero-engine among others.

In addition to that, the company has taken a slew of measures to diversify into new business segments. HAL has star- ted a new Strategic Business Unit (SBU) for UAVs too to cater to national and global needs.