GRSE order book to swell to Rs 28000 cr shortly

State owned defence shipyard Garden Reach Shipbuilders Engineers Ltd (GRSE) expects its order book to swell to Rs 28,000 crore shortly that would keep it busy till 2026, a top company official said Friday.

The PSU that got listed recently, currently has an order book of Rs 23,000 crore and an order of Rs 5,500 crore for eight Anti Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts will be finalised shortly.

"The order book is going to rise to Rs 28,000-29,000 crore involving building 15 ships till 2026," GRSE chairman and managing director V K Saxena said at the CII organised industry defence linkage event.

He said there are three contracts that involve building three stealth missile frigates under Project 17 Alfa, four ASW survey vessels, besides the soon to be finalised order for eight Anti Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts.

He hopes topline of the company which was close to Rs 14,000 crore in FY'18 may get trebled by 2021-22 with the potential defence sector holds.

Without commenting directly on the sluggish stock performance on bourses, he said the company was also focusing on protecting margins.

In order to do so, it has adopted a strategy to outsource non-core items which is about 70 per cent of the order value, and would execute the rest in-house.

"In FY18, our topline and profitability have jumped sharply," Saxena said.

He said defence sector will offer immense opportunities for the private sector including the MSMEs in the next few years.