UAE-headquartered KEF Infra, a pre-fabricated (prefab) building manufacturer with its plant at Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu, has decided to set up end-to-end manufacturing plants in Hyderabad, Lucknow and Mumbai with an estimated investment of $300 million over the next two years to capitalise on the increasing demand for its prefab buildings across sectors. Buoyed with an order book of Rs 1,500 crore in hand, coupled with enquiries from corporate, government bodies and private builders, the company expects to report turnover of Rs 5,000 crore by 2020-21, against Rs 1,000 crore in 2017. The company will also be entering the smart homes segment to make affordable homes for the masses with the starting price of Rs 10 lakh, said Faizal E Kottikollon, chairman of KEF Infra and KEF Holdings. “I sold my oil and gas valves business in the UAE to US major Tyco to raise Rs 2,500 crore in 2012 and decided to become a social entrepreneur with a key focus on government schools, healthcare and education sector construction. I had invested Rs 600 crore in the TN plant and will be setting up similar plants in three more cities with an estimated investment of $300 million over next two years to meet growing demand for my infrastructure building capabilities,” he told FE.
Set up on 42 acre at Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu, the plant will be executing 3 million sq ft infra projects, including a 2 million sq ft mall for Gulf-based Lulu group in Lucknow, four big buildings for Infosys, Kovai Medical Hospital, 262 Indira Canteens of the Karnataka government and a hospital in Coimbatore. “We have orders worth Rs 1,500 crore in hand and huge enquiries worth thousands of crores received so far. We expect the Lucknow facility to be ready in the next few months, followed by the Hyderabad facility in the next nine months. We are talking to Maharashtra government to set up a mother plant in Mumbai. Each plant envisages an investment of $100 million and after that our turnover will be around `5,000 crore by 2020/21,” Kottikollon said.
Some of the projects KEF has delivered include 4 lakh sq ft Meitra Hospital (500 beds) in two phases in Kerala, 175 Indira Canteens of the Karnataka government, 1.7 million sq ft commercial building project for Embassy group and 500,000 sq ft Infosys buildings. “We can deliver any kind of project at one-third time as compared to the conventional method, as everything is pre-fabricated in our plant and just gets assembled. We use the catalogue method to give customers an option to choose their own design and accordingly we manufacture buildings in our plant in Krishnagiri. It is estimated that wastage in a normal conventional building is around 12%. But our wastage is only 2%, so that we can offer at competitive ranges,” he said. Faizal said the company has tied up with trusted vendors, including suppliers of wood, cement, steel, cables and aluminium used in construction. Given the increasing order book, the company is planning to bring at least 50 such vendors to set up their factories near the plant in Krishnagiri. They can bring in investments anywhere between Rs 500 crore and Rs 1,000 crore.
