Data Patterns is working with Swedish MNC, SAAB, for joint-development of products, with an eye on the export markets, the company’s Chairman and Managing Director, Srinivasagopalan Rangarajan, told a press conference today. While he did not mention which products the partners were working on, he did broadly mention ‘electronic warfare’ in this context. He said that the company would like to similarly work with other international companies.
Chennai-headquartered Data Patterns (India) Ltd produces a range of electronic products for defence and space applications, such as radars and electronics on-board the satellites and launch vehicles. All the products sold by the company have been developed in-house, Rangarajan said.
At present, a little less than 10 per cent of Data Patterns’ ₹310 crore (2021-22) turnover came from exports. But the world market is growing. “We are looking at some approach where we can jointly build some systems, build IP together,” Rangarajan said.
In collaboration with SAAB, Data Patterns has an electronic warfare demo system, “partly developed by us, partly by them”, he said.
He observed that the Indian market was “exploding”, thanks to the government’s emphasis on local purchase. Earlier, the Ministry of Defence was buying only sub-systems, but now it is open to buying fully-built systems. So, the focus is on the domestic market. However, once Indian companies develop capabilities to produce full systems, they have the overseas market too. “Build world-class systems and export,” Rangarajan said.
While Data Patterns is a 35-year-old company, “we feel we are a start-up,” he said, because the market itself is opening only now in a big way and the company’s average employee age is around 23. Rangarajan stressed that the company has no foreign tie-up — all the products are designed and produced in-house and are mostly replacements for imported products. In the last 35 years, “we made a lot of mistakes” he said, adding, “we have documented our mistakes.” Also, because the produces are in-house designed “we can handle obsolescence better,” he said, noting that otherwise one would have to go back to the foreign supplier for upgrades.
Answering a question, Rangarajan said that the company had competence in providing stealth capabilities to aircraft, even against low frequency radars. Typically, stealth capabilities against a high frequency (1 GHz) radar are obtained by giving the aircraft a coat of paint that can absorb the radar waves, but it doesn’t work for low frequencies (200-300 MHz). For these you need to employ other tricks to be invisible, such as “increase the bandwidth of power levels”. Data Patterns has such competencies, he said.
In a recent investor presentation, the company had said that it closed December 2022 with a order book of ₹880 crore. On the NSE today, Data Patterns’ share closed at ₹1,409, up ₹116.90 (9.05 per cent) above the previous close. The company came out with its IPO in December 2021, pricing its ₹10 share at ₹585.