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India's largest telecom tower manufacturer Skipper Ltd. expects its exports to grow between 70-75 percent this financial year, from current levels of Rs 400 crore last year.

In an interaction with CNBC-TV18, executive director Sharan Bansal said that the current order book stands at Rs 5,600 crore, while the bidding pipeline ranges anywhere between Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore.

Bansal spoke to CNBC-TV18 after it won an order worth Rs 2,570 crore from BSNL.

The order pertains to the supply and erection of Ground Based Telecom Towers, Infrastructure as a Service Provider (IaaSP) for supply, installation of infrastructure items and subsequent operations and maintenance for a period of five years. The order can also be extended for another five years in the uncovered villages of India.

Execution of the order will take place in Rajasthan (Rs 1,350 crore) and Odisha (Rs 1,220 crore) and will also include the development of approximately 3,350 tower locaion sites.

Funding for this project will be done through the Government's Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), which is meant to provide connectivity in rural and remote areas and has cash reserves worth Rs 55,000 crore. Due to this, Bansal sees no payment risk from the project.

Besides telecom towers, Skipper is also a manufacturer of power transmission and distribution structures

Managing Director Sajjan Kumar Bansal said that their experience in building tower capacity on a turnkey basis will help establish the company as a front runner in this segment. Bansal further said that the company's engineering order book and tender pipeline is in excess of Rs 10,000 crore and a rebound in the polymer market segment makes them optimistic about the future.

The company is also actively pursuing export projects worth Rs 5,400 crore and domestic projects worth Rs 5,100 crore, which are currently in different phases of bidding and negotiations. The management expects these to translate into their order book in the coming quarters.

Additionally the government has expanded the scope of the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme to include chemicals, pharmaceuticals and iron and steel products from December 15.

On the charts, the stock gained 8 percent on Thursday, on very high volumes. Thursday's volume of 19.8 lakh shares traded is more than double of its 10-day average volume of 9 lakh shares.

Shares of Skipper are currently off the opening highs, trading 0.9 percent higher at Rs 141.30. The stock is up nearly 20 percent over the last five trading sessions.

First Published:Dec 30, 2022 9:39 AM IST