Voltas Bags Rs 225 Crore Turnkey Contract From Qatar

Voltas, the diversified Tata group company, has bagged its largest overseas contract of Rs 225 crore for an electromagnetic work in Qatar. This is one of the largest orders bagged by the company's international operations business group.

The electro mechanical turnkey project has been awarded by Italian company Rizzani de Eccher for the Al Udied project of the Qatar defence ministry.

P N Dhume, executive vice-president and chief operating officer , international operations business group, said, "Post merger, this is the largest contract we have bagged." Last year, the company merged Voltas International with itself so that it would facilitate raising finances needed to undertake large contracts on better terms.

The division is emerging as one of the growth engines for Voltas both in terms of topline and bottomline, Dhume said.

Overseas, the company has bagged a Rs 60 crore contract from Abu Dhabi. It is also negotiating for some projects in Hong Kong. It has also formed a 50:50 joint venture with an Italian firm, Aeri Meianti, to undertake the luxury liner project, Queen Mary II worth, Rs 150 crore.

The international division also expects good business in the local market. It expects project work of about Rs 30-40 crore in India. The erstwhile subsidiary recorded a turnover of Rs 143 crore for the year ended March 31, 2001 compared with Rs 74 crore last year.

Voltas has been restructuring its operations, which saw the company exit all non-core businesses and consolidate its core business. It has sold its thermostat business, chemicals unit to a group company, and hived off part of the bleeding white goods into a joint venture with Electrolux.