| Type | Public (BSE: 532714) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Transmission tower |
| Founded | 1945 [1] (as Kamani Engineering Corp.) |
| Founder(s) | Ramjibhai Kamani[1] |
| Headquarters | Mumbai,, India |
| Key people | Ramesh Chandak, MD & CEO[2][3] |
| Revenue | 3,878.23 crore (US$736.86 million) [4] |
| Profit | 170.99 crore (US$32.49 million)[4] |
| Employees | 3,200[5] |
| Parent | RPG Group |
| Subsidiaries | SAE Towers[6] |
| Website | Official Website |
KEC International Limited (BSE: 532714) (formerly Kamani Engineering Corporation Limited) is India's second largest manufacturer of electric power transmission towers[7] and one of the largest[8] Power Transmission Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) companies in the world. It is headquartered in Mumbai, India[9] and is part of the 16,000 crore (US$3.04 billion) RPG Group, engaged in laying of power transmission lines on EPC globally.[10] It also provides telecom infrastructure services, tower testing, satellite and GPRS surveys, and hotline stringing services. It has operations in Algeria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tajikistan, and the United Arab Emirates.
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Ramjibhai Kamani founded Kamani Engineering Corporation (KEC) in 1945 which became the first electric power transmission company in Asia and a pioneer in the field of electric power transmission[11] and railway electrification. In 1950, the company received an order from the Indian government to supply transmission towers for the prestigious Bhakra Nangal Dam project and a steel tower fabrication plant was established in Bombay in partnership with R. Foures, France. This was augmented by a second unit in Jaipur, Rajasthan and by 1967, KEC was supplying three-fifths of India's demand for transmission towers.[11][12]
By the 1970s KEC had carried out turnkey power transmission projects in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, Mauritius, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, the United States and Canada. With eighty per cent of its turnover of almost 80 crore (US$15.2 million) being earned through exports, KEC soon became the largest manufacturer of transmission towers in India and the second largest in the world, next in rank to SAE of Italy.[11][12]
KEC accumulated heavy financial debt during the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis both of which adversely affected international transactions conducted in US Dollars as world crude oil prices quadrupled. The company struggled but was bound to completing its project commitments. This resulted in the company incurring heavy losses.[12] Financial institutions such as IDBI (Industrial Development Bank of India) had invested some 23 crore (US$4.37 million) in KEC and began to worry when KEC's financial reports showed a record loss of 442 lakh (US$839,800). They began to press for "professional management".[11]
Around this time, Texmaco, a K.K. Birla company began to show interest in KEC, but their bid to control the company was frustrated and they backed away. Financial institutions stepped in and appointed their nominees to take over control from the Kamani family. The company soon began to limp back to profitability as KEC's sales climbed from 20 crore (US$3.8 million) in 1972 to 55 crore (US$10.45 million) in 1982.[11]
R.P. Goenka, chairman of the RPG Group had been vying for KEC shares for a long time. Even after financial institutions has stepped in, some members of the Kamani family continued to hold a small number of shares in the company. Goenka carefully maneuvered to purchase these shares making sure that he did not get trapped in the same pitfalls that had defeated the Birla's attempts to take over KEC. Shareholding negotiations and approvals from financial institutions were sought before the company was put up for court auction by the government.[11]
Today KEC International is a 4,000 crore (US$760 million) turnover flagship company of the RPG Group with a global presence and a long established customer reputation.
The company currently has expertise in the following major business areas:
The company has manufacturing facilities in Nagpur, Jabalpur, Jaipur (Tower and Steel Structurals), Thane, Mysore and Silvassa (Cables).
In March 2010, RPG Cables was merged with KEC International.[13]
In September 2010, KEC International acquired Houston, Texas based SAE Towers, a group of operating companies incorporated in the United States, Mexico and Brazil consolidated through SAE Towers Holdings, LLC. This acquisition created the largest steel lattice tower manufacturer in the world with approximately 300,000 tons of annual production capacity.[14]
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