Engineers India, Tata Group to form 50:50 JV
Livemint.com — December 10, 2007

The Tata Group and state-run Engineers India Ltd (EIL) will form a joint venture for engineering consultancy and construction projects in India and abroad.

"We have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tata Projects Ltd for floating a 50:50 joint venture company for undertaking engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts," EIL chairman and managing director, Mukesh Rohatgi, told reporters here.

The MoU is pending with the Petroleum Ministry for approval, he said.

The JV will start with an authorized capital of Rs15 crore, Rs10 crore of which will be paid up. The EIL chairman will head the joint venture as non-executive chief, while Tata Projects will nominate the managing director.

Rohatgi said EIL has total orders worth Rs5,000 crore at present. Its order book position at the close of last fiscal was Rs2,000 crore.

"We are doing engineering consultancy for the HPCL-Mittal combine's Bhatinda refinery in Punjab as well as BPCL's Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh," Rohatgi said.

EIL will earn Rs800 crore in consultancy fee for the Bhatinda refinery. The company also has a contract for Indian Oil Corp's (IOC) Panipat naphtha cracker project.

On EIL radar are EPC contract for a bitumen plant in Oman besides construction contract for Indian Oil Corp's $6-billion Paradip refinery-cum-petrochemcial complex in Orissa.

He said EIL may help IOC construct a $9-billion refinery in Egypt. IOC is planning to join Egyptian General Petroleum Corp for building and refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in the African nation.

"We have verbally communicated for the feasibility study. It should be of the size of 180,000-300,000 barrels per day refinery and petrochemical project," he said.

In November 2006, EIL had tied up with Punj Lloyd in a consortium to make a $1.6-billion bid for a contract to upgrade and modernize the Azzawiya refinery in Libya.

The company has nearly 14 strategic alliances with equipment and materials manufacturers besides technology developers. It also has two wholly-owned subsidiaries - EIL Asia Pacific in Malaysia and Certification Engineers International for undertaking independent and third-party inspection assignments.