New Delhi: India’s monopoly military aircraft manufacturer — Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) — plans to offload 10 percent of its 100 percent government-owned equity in the market to garner resources for expansion and better management.
However, analysts and users of the aircraft say the plan doesn’t go far enough. A complete restructuring is needed, they say, and merely selling a small stake in equity will not help it revamp itself. HAL, with an annual sales figure of about $3 billion, has an order book of more than $10 billion. That number is poised to balloon when HAL begins license production of the $11 billion Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) and the $20 billion Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) programs.
HAL will need to spend $4 billion in the next five to seven years to build additional capital and human infrastructure to support the aircraft programs.
25/11/12 Vivek Raghuvanshi/Defencenews
