Walchandnagar Industries is expecting defence orders for Akash Missiles to the tune of more than Rs 100 crore in the next couple of months, said GK Pillai, managing director and CEO of the company.

Pillai said there have been delays in the finalisation of defence orders and the overall order book from the segment stands at Rs 150 crore. "Order inflows from that segment till date (this year) have been only to the extent of Rs 10-12 crore which could be due to non-clearance of the budget for the defence expenditure," said Pillai in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

Walchandnagar Industries and Indian Space Research Organisation's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) have entered into a contract whereby WIL will manufacture and supply head, middle and nozzle end segments for the GSLV M KIII launch vehicle. The contract value is Rs 77.20 crore plus. This is the second-largest order win for the company.

Shares of Walchandnagar jumped as much as 11.4 percent to Rs 67.60 in early trade on Thursday on the news.

The order is expected to be executed in about 36 months, said Pillai. Pillai added that the total order book backlog for ISRO is about Rs 180 crore.

“As far as ISRO is concerned, the company is fully geared up to meet any additional requirement and lot of capital infusion has happened for the space programme at Walchandnagar,” he said.

The total order book currently stands at Rs 850 crore and the total debt for the company is around Rs 650 crore, added Pillai.

First Published:Sept 12, 2019 12:18 PM IST