KEC International bids for data center projects

Infrastructure EPC player, KEC International Limited is seen building up a separate portfolio of data center business. While its first data center will get commissioned in the next three-four months, KEC has bid for a few more as the push for digital economy and governance is fuelling demand for data centers.

“As part of our civil business, we are building two data centers. One is for the defence and the second one is for one of the largest telecom service providers. This will be the first for KEC,” Vimal Kejriwal, MD & CEO, KEC International Ltd told BusinessLine during his recent visit to Gujarat.

Notably, data centers had not been part of the business earlier for KEC, an RPG Group company. Corporate, government agencies and service providers are increasingly building infrastructure for data centers to ensure safe, secure and hassle-free access and storage of data.

Kejriwal stated that the data centre for defence will be commissioned in about 3-4 months, while the work on the one for telecom player has just started and “it will take some more time of about 1.5 years to complete it,” said Kejriwal.

“We have bid for a few more, and we may get one or two of them. We are already supplying extra-high voltage (EHV), high tension (HT) cables and low tension (LT) cables, to most of these data centers as part of our cables business,” he said adding that the data centers — currently part of a civil business — hold a potential to become a separate business vertical for the company, besides its existing verticals of Transmission & Distribution, civil, solar, cables, railways among others.

Business performance
During fiscal 2021-22, the company’s civil business delivered a robust performance with revenues growing by about 75 per cent (y-o-y) to approximately ₹1,900 crore. The civil business vertical, which was started about four years ago, will now see about 100 per cent growth in revenues, as Kejriwal expects it to touch ₹3,600 crore in fiscal 2022-23.

Increased expansion activities in the sectors of cement, steel, mining and metals are is fuelling the company’s growth in civil business. KEC International shares traded in red at ₹406.80 on Friday down by 0.5 per cent from the previous close on BSE. The Hindu BusinessLine