Bharat Electronics bags orders worth ₹4,300 cr; stock rises 2%

Shares of Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) gained over 2% in early trade on Monday after the state-owned aerospace and defence electronics company secured contracts worth ₹4,300 crore from the Indian Army and Indian Navy.

Boosted by the order win, BEL shares snapped three sessions losing streak and opened higher at ₹93.59 against the Friday’s closing price of ₹91.42 on the BSE. In the first hour of trade so far, the stock gained as much as 2.4% to ₹93.59, while the market capitalisation climbed to ₹67,520 crore.

The PSU stock currently trades nearly 19% lower than its 52-week high of ₹115 touched on September 15, 2022, while it hit a 52-week low of ₹67.82 on March 28, 2022. The counter has risen 35.5% in the last one year, while it fell 7% in the six-month period. In the calendar year 2023, the stock has fallen nearly 8%, while it shed nearly 3% in a month.

The PSU company, which comes under the Ministry of Defence (MoD), in a post market hour release on Friday said that the central government has signed a contract worth ₹3,000 crore for supply of integrated electronic warfare systems for the Indian Army. Besides, it also received several contracts totaling around ₹1,300 crore during last fortnight from the Indian Navy for supply of indigenously developed fire control, gun fire control, surveillance, tracking, ESM, Sonar Systems etc.

The integrated electronic warfare systems for Indian Army are technologies, indigenously developed and manufactured by BEL based on Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL), DRDO design. These integrated systems will be a real force multiplier and will further enhance the electronic warfare capability of the Indian Army in leaps and bounds, it said.

In a separate release on March 23, BEL said that the Ministry of Defence has signed two contracts worth ₹3,800 crore with the company for the supply of medium power radar and digital radar warning receiver (RWR) for the Indian Air Force. The medium power radar (Arudhara) for the Indian Air Force is a 4D surveillance radar equipped with active aperture phased array radar technologies based on Solid State TR Module Transmission. The radar is indigenously developed and manufactured by BEL based on Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LDRE) - DRDO design.

The supply of advanced EW Systems will significantly enhance the battle-suitability of IAF fighter aircraft while undertaking operational missions against adversaries, BEL said in a release.

For the third quarter ended December 2022, BEL reported 2.87% year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated net profit to ₹613.01 crore from ₹595.86 crore in the same quarter last year. The revenue from operations grew 11% to ₹4,064.9 crore as compared to ₹3660.84 crore reported in the third quarter of December 2021.

The Navratna PSU announced an equity dividend of 450% at a face value of ₹1, or ₹4.5 per share, for the fiscal year that ended in March 2022, translating to a dividend yield of 4.85%. Earlier this month, the board of directors of the company declared a second interim dividend of ₹0.60 (60%) per equity share of ₹1 each fully paid-up for the financial year 2022-23. Since August 27, 2001, BEL has issued 46 dividends, while it announced an equity dividend of ₹3.60 per share in the last 12 months, according to data from Trendlyne.