Ashok Leyland bags critical order of Rs. 100 crore from MoD

Ashok Leyland has bagged a critical order from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for supplying High Mobility 10x10 vehicles i.e. HMV 10x10. The Indian Army plans to deploy these vehicles since a long time to carry Smerch Rockets. With this order, it seems the army has found a proper fit for its requirement.

This is an initial order worth Rs. 100 crore. The company had participated in 15 tenders last year, of which it was successful in bagging 12 tenders. This order will open up the mobility platforms to the company for providing other missile carriers & launchers, modular bridges and other critical loads.

The company has received defence orders worth more than Rs. 5,000 crore so far which would be executed over the next five years. In the last four years, it has expanded its base to cater to 20 per cent of the needs of the defence sector. Thus, of the total revenue of the company, 4 per cent was contributed by the defence sector.

For the month of March 2018, the company’s total sales volume increased by 20 per cent to 22,453 units from 18,701 units in March 2017. Also, in FY18 the sales volume rose by 21 per cent to 1,74,873 units as against 1,45,085 units in FY17.

On Thursday, Ashok Leyland’s stock had closed at Rs. 144.90 per share. It surged by ~3.5 per cent hitting intra-day high of Rs. 150 per share in the morning trading session of Friday.