My Iris reported that Bharat Heavy Electricals intends to acquire companies in the non conventional energy and transmission business to more than double its turnover to INR 500 billion in the next 5.

BHEL said that “It is holding discussions with two Japanese companies for technical or strategic partnership to enter into solar power. It is aiming an integrated facility in West Bengal with an investment of about INR 30 billion. The facility will manufacture polycrystalline silicon ingots, solar wafers, solar cells, modules and solar panel systems. BHEL might rope in Bharat Electronics as a strategic partner in the venture.

BHEL is also in talks with a major Japanese player for technology collaboration to get into the transmission equipment business. A brown field facility is being planned at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh for foraying into transmission equipment.

Currently, the company gets only about 7% of their revenues from abroad and hopes to increase this share to 10% within a few years. They are also looking at acquiring transformer manufacturing facilities in countries such as Egypt and Myanmar.