New Delhi: Vice Admiral, Narayan Prasad, CMD, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders and Sanjeev Singhal, Director (Finance) and Chief Financial Officer, talks about the upcoming IPO, current and expected orderbook, diversification of business among others during an exclusive interview with Swati Khandelwal, Zee Business. Edited Excerpts:

Congratulations on your upcoming IPO. Please run us through the details of the IPO and what would you suggest to people who can be interested in this IPO? Also, talk about the size of the IPO, the state government wants to divest here and where the proceeds will be used?

The offer summary is Initial Public Offer (IPO) of about 3 crores 59 lakhs shares of the face value of around Rs 10 per share including employee reservation of 3,45,517 equity shares. The net offer of 3 crores 25 lakh 3,500 equity shares which constitute 15% of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital. There is an OFS of around 3 crores 59 lakhs 9,017 equity shares of the face value Rs 10 per share. As I have said earlier, its price band has been decided between Rs 135 to Rs 145 per equity share of the face value of Rs 10 each. The QIB portion will stand around 50%, the Non-institutional Investors (NII) portion stands at 15% and the retail portion is 35%.

What is your orderbook situation at present? What is the execution run rate and what kind of earnings visibility does the current orderbook provide?

I would like to update you about the orderbook that we have with us. Currently, we are working on Project 15 Bravo, which is a project to make destroyers, and we are making four of them. Similarly, under Project 17 Alpha we are making stealth frigates. Along with this, we are also making four submarines, which is known as Scorpion Project 75. Apart from this, we are also repairing a German-origin Submarine, which is called medium refit and life certification. If we assess the value of all these projects in today’s time, then it will be around Rs 54,500 crore. So, today we have an orderbook of around Rs 54,500 crore and it will be discharged in the next 6-7 years.

As far as future programmes are concerned, then the Indian Navy has a Maritime Capability Perspective Plan that looks after their acquisition policy for the next 15-20 years. If it is drawn at our end then some projects are likely to come to us includes six new-generation missile vessels. We have submitted the RFP for the same and bids are awaited. It is going to cost around Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore.

Similarly, they need six New Generation Operation Patrol Vessels (OPVs) and its RFP has been opened and we are supposed to bid for it. These too will be built at Rs 600-800 crore per ship. Besides, things that are visible in the next 2-3 years include seven new generations collate, six high-speed landing craft, one polar research vessel, three project training ships, four multi-purpose vessels and one survey training vessels. As far as coastguards are concerned than 18 fast patrol crafts and 12 air mission vessels. Visibility of all these things can be seen in the next one to three years. Apart from this, the two big projects that are being talked amid the existing situation include the construction of six air-independent propulsion system frigate conventional submarines. These submarines will be manufactured within India and it will cost around Rs 44,000-45,000 crore. Its RFP will be out in October or November and then we will get a chance to submit our bids within a year.

You have said that you would diversify towards commercial clients apart from Navy. Can you please give some an update on that? What kind of orders is expected from there?

I would like to inform you that Indian Coast Guards are our second client and we are making arrangements to repair their ships at our shipyards. As far as exports in concerned then I would like to say that the maritime mission around us doesn’t have such a financial capability that they can ask for a submarine, frigate, and destroyer, which costs around Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 7,500 crore per piece. So, they do not need them. But we have regions like Africa, Middle East, Europe, Asia, South America, which have many counties like in Africa Ghana, Nigeria and Cango among others, who needs small ships, floating boats, fast patrol vehicles, fast interceptor crafts, and anchor hangings. We have their designs and capability to build them and we have submitted our RFP for the purpose to these but things have not materialized yet due to COVID-19 pandemic. In the next few years, we have great hopes from them. Similarly, I would like to name two Middle East countries and they are Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who need anchor handling vessels. Europe and Portugal need marine electrical equipment with who we are in direct connection. Bangladesh needs large patrol craft and floating boats and we are in talks with them. In South America, Peru is a country that needs OPV, fast patrol vessel and fast inceptor crafts and we are in touch with them. Similarly, Argentina’s coast guard needs four offshore patrol vessels and it is going to be an order of Rs 1,000 crore and we have submitted our bids for the purpose.

Besides, I would like to inform you that we have already supplied a different kind of ships to countries, like Mexico, France, the UK, Singapore, Iran and Yemen, in the past. For instance, we have built two multi-purpose vessels for Mexico, six cargo vessels for the UK and two bulk carriers for Singapore.