Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd (DPIL), manufacturer of conductors and medium voltage cables, has drawn up a massive expansion plan at an investment of about Rs 750 crore. The project would be implemented over a 30-month period and would be met through a mix of debt and internal accruals.

The board of directors at a meeting held yesterday approved the expansion project that would be implemented in three phases beginning from April 2013.

The company is already executing a Rs 50-crore 6.3-MW wind energy project, which is part of the expansion scheme, that is expected to be commissioned in March this year.

Capacity expansion

Diamond Power plans to nearly treble its conductor manufacturing capacity from 50,500 MT per annum to 1,50,500 tonnes. Along with this project, it will also hike its rod manufacturing facility to 1.22 lakh tonnes from the current 32,000 tonnes.

In respect of medium voltage cables, three additional lines, each with an installed capacity of 2,500 km (total length 7,500 km) that would take the capacity from 5,600 km to 1,2700 km, will be installed.

Project cost

DPIL said the total project cost of Rs 753 crore would be met through a mix of rupee term loan/ECB loan and suppliers’ credit aggregating Rs 440 crore that has been tied up.

The balance Rs 333 crore would be raised through internal accruals, now available and which would accrue progressively over the project implementation period.

Net profit, turnover

In Q3 of the current fiscal, the company recorded a turnover of Rs 539.06 crore over Rs 378.47 crore registered in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. But its net profit was up only marginally from Rs 29.27 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2010 to Rs 30.77 crore in Q3 of the current fiscal.

Apparently the huge increase in raw material cost was the main reason for this — consumption of raw materials increased to Rs 465.36 crore during the quarter under review from Rs 332.43 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

On the BSE, the stock was up by Rs 7.70 at Rs 136 with about 2.80 lakh shares being traded. On the NSE, the share was trading at Rs 135.60, up by Rs 8.05. The stock has gained nearly 80 per cent in the past two months from its 52-week low of Rs 74.30 on December 21 on the NSE.