Patel Engineering – Dark Horse

No. of shares – 5,96,59,090
Promoter Holding – 53.79 %
Institutional Holding – 15%
General Public Holding – 17.81%

Face Value – Re. 1
Book Value – Rs. 141.50
Market Cap – Rs. 2256 Cr
Reserves - Rs. 838 Cr (As of Mar-08)
Long Term Debt/equity – 0.39

Patel Engineering Ltd. Is an ISO 9001-2000 certified company, established in 1949, has grown to become a front runner Civil Engg Company. It has executed projects in Tunneling, underground works in hydro-electric & irrigation projects, nuclear & thermal power projects, bridges & marine works and public health projects.

Till date it has completed 160 Km tunneling work, 75 dams & 30 hydroelectric projects in India & 30 micro tunneling projects in USA. It has two Hi-tech companies – ASI RCC Inc. & Westcon Microtunneling Inc. for undertaking & executing complex projects.

The company’s order book stood at over Rs. 7200 Cr as of March-end & expects its orderbook to cross Rs 9000 Cr by mid-year.

Some of the recent projects -
Two orders worth Rs 708 Cr - One is a 36-month, Rs 5.5 billion contract for irrigation infrastructure from Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corp, Maharashtra. The other is for hydropower project from Himachal Pradesh Power Corp for about Rs 1.5 billion, it said.
March 24, 2009 - Patel Engineering bags Rs 799 crore tunnelling work in Narmada Valley Development Authority to be completed in 36 months.
September 19, 2008 - Patel Engineering bags Rs 696 cr order for Krishna Delta System modernization from AP Government
December 17, 2008 - Patel Engineering bags the largest Irrigation Project (Pranahita – Chevella Lift irrigation) of Rs 3,859 crore from AP Government.

Last 3 years’ results –
Mar – 07
Sales – Rs. 1110 Cr; NP – 110 Cr
Mar – 08
Sales – 1338 Cr; NP – 148 Cr
Till Dec – 09
Sales – 1023 Cr; NP – 99 Cr
With the government’s thrust on Farm & infrastructure spending, Patel Engg stands to gain robust growth in coming years. It will turn out to be large cap company from small cap. So I think that it’s a dark horse & we should accumulate the shares on every dip.