BHEL pays all-time high dividend of 311.5 per cent

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) today announced a final dividend of 179 per cent, taking the annual payout (including an interim dividend of 133 per cent paid earlier) to equity holders to 311.5 per cent.

The dividend payout, which works out to a total Rs1,524.8 crore, is the highest-ever return on the company's equity capital.

State-run BHEL can take credit to an unmatched track record of staying profitable and paying dividends uninterruptedly for over three decades.

B P Rao, chairman and managing director of the company, handed over a cheque of Rs593.4 crore towards the final dividend for the year 2010-11 to Praful Patel, union minister for heavy industries and public enterprises.

The Government of India holds equity of 67.72 per cent in BHEL, the country's premier manufacturer of electric equipment.

BHEL is the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise in India in the energy-related/infrastructure sector. Established in 1964, ushering in the indigenous heavy electrical equipment industry in India, the company now caters to the core sectors of the Indian economy, viz, power, transmission, industry, transportation, renewable energy, oil and gas and defence.

With a network of 15 manufacturing divisions, four power sector regional centres, eight service centres, 15 regional offices, four overseas offices, two subsidiaries and over 150 project sites spread all over India, the company manufactures a range of products, systems and services.