Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro plans to sell its Electrical and Automation business.

This is said to be part of its ongoing restructuring process and sources close to the development said the Board, which met on Wednesday, approved a resolution to the effect.

L&T is said to be in talks with Schneider Electric and Eaton Corporation and the expectations on valuations are in the range of Rs 12,000-14,000 crore.

An L&T spokesperson declined to either confirm or refute the news.

The division accounts for little less than seven per cent of L&T's total revenues with manufacturing facilities in Mumbai, Ahmednagar and several overseas locations.

For FY 10, revenues from Electrical and Automation were Rs 3,674 crore and expectations are that that the figure for the just concluded fiscal would be around Rs 4,200 crore.

On Monday, Mr Sharat C. Bhargava, Senior Vice-president, Electrical and Automation, said L&T had filed for 151 patents in the last fiscal and had over 600 live patents.

Portfolio

E&A's business portfolio covers a wide range of electrical equipment such as medium- and low-voltage switchgear, control-gear, building electrical, energy metres and medical equipment

The market size of the switchgear products is between Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 crore and 75 per cent of this is in the medium-voltage segment of below 36 kV and 15-20 per cent in the high-voltage segment. L&T's share is about 30 per cent in the low voltage segment (below 1,000 volts) and 4-5 per cent in the medium-voltage segment (up to 36 kV).

In March, L&T sold its stake in L&T-Case Equipment to its joint venture partner CNH Global. The 40-acre plant at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh makes backhoe loaders and vibratory compactor.

On Friday, the L&T scrip on BSE closed at Rs 1,727.70 marginally higher than the previous close.

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