Demand In New Segments To Lead ABB India’s Growth: MD Sanjeev Sharma
He highlighted a shift in the Indian market post Covid-19 pandemic where the focus is now more on good global technology than the cost factor.
ABB India Ltd. is focusing on new segments like data centres, electric vehicles, and green energy to fuel growth in the current financial year, following a healthy rise in net profit for the quarter ended June 2024.
The electrification and automation major reported a sharp 50% year-on-year rise in its net profit at Rs 443.5 crore in the June quarter compared to Rs 295.91 crore in the year-ago period. The company's revenue rose to Rs 2,830.9 crore in the second quarter of the calendar year 2024 (CY24), up 12.8% from Rs 2,508.63 crore a year ago.
The company follows a January-December cycle for reporting its financial results.
According to Sanjeev Sharma, managing director of ABB India Ltd, the company is eyeing segments to sustain growth in fiscal 2025.
"Since 2017, new market segments have opened in the country. Like, earlier we used to serve 7-8 segments; now it has broadened to about 23 market segments," Sharma said in an exclusive interview with NDTV Profit.
"India used to be served by data centres sitting in Singapore and somewhere else, but now with the policy change as well as the data consumption that we have and the latency that you require for financial services, It is a long runway wherein a lot of data centre capacity will be built in the country, and that's where our portfolio is at the sweet spot, and we have a very large kick up there," he said.
He highlighted a shift in the Indian market post Covid-19 pandemic where the focus is now more on good global technology than the cost factor.
"There's an appreciation of good technology, reliable technology, and companies that can deliver higher availability of equipment, easy to maintain and easy to service by the local network," Sharma added.
Commenting on the company's growth prospects against the backdrop of the Indian government's increased focus on energy infrastructure, Sharma predicted a '5 to 10-year runway' for stable growth, provided there are no drastic changes in economic or environmental policies beyond our control.
“We have quite a journey to perform; especially in process automation the energy equation in India is very important because we want to be less dependent on imported fossil fuel. These energy equations will continue to evolve,” he concluded.
ABB India Ltd. reported a robust order book at Rs 9,517 crore as of June 30, 2024, up from Rs 7,727 crore in Q2 of calendar year 2023.
