Paras Defence Aims For 29% Ebitda Margin This Fiscal

Paras Defence and Space Technologies Ltd. is set to clock an Ebitda margin of around 29% in the current financial year, backed by better-than-expected performance in the optics and optronics systems segment, according to the company’s Director Amit Mahajan.

Mahajan told NDTV Profit that optics and optronics systems offer good visibility, funnel, and opportunity to the company beyond the defence sector. “This (optics and optronics systems segment) is a drastic opportunity to increase profitability,” he said.

Referring to the company's business model undergoing a change, Mahajan said, “The company is making a paradigm shift from a component manufacturer to a sub-system manufacturer and now to a complete system manufacturer. When we are doing complete systems, we are manufacturing a lot of those components that are going in our systems developed in-house which increases the profitability of these products.”

Taking all of this into account, he said that the company is poised for improved profitability.

Commenting on the Rs 135-crore QIP launched earlier this month, Mahajan said that the company wanted to be ready for all the opportunities in the future.

“The space programmes are going to go in a much different trajectory than they are today. There are more surveillance-based space programmes and Paras Defence is right in the thick of it,” he said.

“Looking at the kind of opportunities we have in front of us, be it space programmes or our RF and microwave domain or Controp-Paras joint venture, any one of it will require a good amount of working capital,” Mahajan added.

He said that the anti-drone system is a critical and complex technology segment and Paras is doing significant work in this area.

“Starting from next month onwards we are rolling out products that not only can be used by defence but also by security personnel. Everybody who has a security requirement can use the products designed and manufactured in India by Para Anti-Drone (Solutions),” he said.

Shares of Paras Defence and Space Technology ended Tuesday's trade 1.48% higher at Rs 1,083 apiece on the NSE against benchmark Nifty's slip of 0.28% on Tuesday.