Totem Infra to diversify

It plans to build a Rs 200-crore multi-use apartments in about 10 acre near the outer ring road here. The company currently is executing infrastructure works relating to irrigation, power, railways and roads.

Also, the company is looking to change its business model from cash contracts to long-term revenue channels like build, operate and transfer, Totem director and chief operating officer Abhijit Roy told Business Standard.

The company had, in February, raised $10 million (about Rs 40 crore) from Singapore-based private equity fund Aquarius Investment Advisors. It plans to utilise this money for growth plans, expanding to new locations and operations.

At present, Totem has offices in Hyderabad, Delhi and Indore and new offices are being planned in Kolkata and Nagpur shortly. "We want real estate to account for at least 25 per cent of our portfolio," Roy said.

Totem's current order book stands at Rs 1,000 crore to be executed in two-and-a-half years. Most of the existing projects are cash contracts and hence the required investments are mobilised through advances and other means. To fund these, the company has also formed a consortium of banks with Union Bank of India as the lead bank. The company expects the order book to increase to Rs 2,500 crore for this financial year and in three years, it plans to go public to raise funds for various projects, Roy said.

Among the various projects, it is building about roads in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka on a BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis. It established its presence in central India recently by bagging the order for the III phase of the Omkareshwar Project Canal System from Sadbhav Engineering Limited for Rs 310 crore.

Totem is also executing an NTPC power project in Nagpur and constructing minor bridges, culverts and others for an internal railway line for expansion of the Bhilai power project for RITES, a government of India enterprise.

The Rs 150-crore company is now looking to forge a public-private partnership in a state project in Rajasthan and recently submitted a request for quotation (RFQ) in this regard.

It is also looking to participate in infrastructure projects of the Mysore Urban Development Authority and Tamil Nadu and Haryana governments, Roy said.

"Infrastructure projects can be done with decent profit margins," he said, adding companies, with a focus on improving the order book position, are quoting at least 15 per cent less than what a project could get without taking a dip in the margins.