Bharat Heavy Electricals Share Price

Established in 1956, BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited) is India's largest power generation equipment manufacturer under the ministry of heavy industries Government of India. It is also one of India’s major Public Sector enterprises (PSE) and is the single major source of coal, hydro, gas, nuclear, and solar energy. It serves several core sectors such as transmission, industrial systems and products, transportation, e-mobility & battery energy storage, renewable energy, oil & gas, water, and defence & aerospace.
As a leader in the power transmission sector in India, BHEL offers a good range of transmission systems and products conforming to international quality and standards. With the tagline "Powering Progress, Brightening Lives Touching Every Indian Home", BHEL utilises its huge infrastructure base of 17 Manufacturing Units, 2 Repair Units, 4 Regional Offices, 8 Service Centers, 8 Overseas Offices, 15 Regional Centers, and 7 Joint Ventures to execute more than 150 projects globally.

History of BHEL

When India attained independence in 1947, one of the greatest challenges India faced was providing a good infrastructure base for economic and industrial development. Hence in 1956, the government of India established "Heavy Electricals India Limited" (HEIL), a Public Sector Company under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, to provide a thrust to the industrial sector. As the industrial revolution kicked in and the demand for power generating capacity multiplied manifold, BHEL established the following power manufacturing plants :

1. First at Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu) for high-pressure boilers.
2. Second one at Hyderabad (Telangana) for steam turbo generators and high-pressure pumps and compressors.
3. Third plant at Haridwar (Uttarakhand) for large steam turbo generating sets and motors and hydro generating sets. All the initial preparatory work for BHEL was administered from Bhopal till November 1964, until the government decided to create a separate corporation for setting up and managing these three units.

Thus, Heavy Electricals India Limited was merged with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, and BHEL was born and formally incorporated on 13th November 1964. Over time as BHEL developed its capabilities and expanded across various sectors, it became a Public Limited company in 1991.

Apprehension towards BHEL

The state-owned company struggled as its order flow tumbled in the last decade. India's power producers sat on excess capacity, with power demand not growing as expected. As a result, 
Also, BHEL lacks marketing skills for its engineering equipment, which greatly affects the company's manufacturing capabilities, leading to inadequate supply in the market.
Another instance is the Commissioning of the 1,320MW Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant at Rampal, Bangladesh. The coal power plant was criticized immensely for its adverse effects on the environment due to its proximity to the Sundarbans mangrove forest.

Conclusion

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited's (BHEL) share prices have fallen by 57% in the last year due to a weak domestic power sector, slow execution of projects, high debt, and drying up of investment funding. While the government is trying to revive the sector by breaking the State Electricity Boards into independent firms and allowing power tariff hikes, BHEL is a good contrarian value buy at the current market price with a 1-2 years perspective. BHEL is a true Maharatna PSU.