$100 billion investment opportunities in Indian defence industries: Frost & Sullivan study
30 May 2008
The Indian Armed Forces' ongoing modernisation programme is set to make India the Asia Pacific region's second highest defence spender over the next five years and the seventh largest globally by 2016, according to a market study by Frost & Sullivan.
The study estimates that the total spending for the Indian defence market will reach $36.2 billion by 2013. The total opportunities for procurement are forecast to exceed $100 billion by 2022, including the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market, while the offset potential during the forecast period is expected to reach $10 billion by 2013.
To examine where short, medium and long-term investment growth opportunities exist for European companies and to explore future procurement plans for the Indian defence sector, Frost & Sullivan held a briefing on 'Market growth opportunities in the Indian defence industry.'
The event held last week in London was attended by over forty representatives from leading defence organisations including Raytheon, EADS, Lockheed Martin, Thales, QinetiQ, General Dynamics, SAAB, RBS and GE. Also present at the seminar were top-level institutional representatives from the United Kingdom Trade & Investment organisation as well as the naval adviser from the High Commission of India, among others.
Keynote speakers at the seminar were Commodore AJ Singh, naval adviser, High Commission of India; Dr Pracheesh Mathur, MD, Raytheon – India; Malcolm Haworth – Operations Director, UKTI Defence & Security Organisation and Ratan Shrivastava, director of Frost & Sullivan's aerospace & defence practice, South Asia and Middle East.
Summarising the mood of Indian Defence procurement Commodore Singh said, ''We want all this, now!'' He highlighted briefly some of the salient points of the country's huge procurement programme, in which ''indigenisation is the new mantra,'' indicating that the Indian Air Force provides the biggest deal for the international defence market, and that the Indian Navy also has an ambitious expansion agenda, with nearly 40 ships under construction.
Haworth examined the topic from a UK perspective and pointed out that India is the UK's third largest customer for defence exports, after Saudi Arabia and the USA.
Dr Mathur examined what he called ''the Indian defence procurement panorama'' in which, although there are ''bureaucratic tangles, funding is not an issue.'' He pointed out that the end-user is very ''tech-savvy and always looking for hi-tech solutions.'' He stressed the advantages of local involvement: of having an ''Indian footprint'' and that ''relationships tend to trump contacts'' although the rule of law prevails.
His talk also touched on the Indian civil security market, saying that, although this was now something of a mystery to the outside world, it was worth getting to know the people involved: a good relationship could reap significant rewards since this was an area of significant future spending.
All delegates, including Frost & Sullivan's own Ratan Shrivastava, drew attention to the significance in the procurement process of India's mandatory offset conditions in military contracts and the cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indian defence industries.
Nevertheless, Ratan suggested treating offsets as an investment opportunity and emphasised the importance of the after-market support as an important, steady revenue stream over the longer term. He also pointed for the need to develop partnerships with the Indian defence industry and establishment, where total imports are worth an estimated $12 billion in 2008 alone.
