Antrix's profits declined despite industry growth

BANGALORE: Antrix Corporation, the marketing arm of Isro, witnessed declining profits over the fiscal years 2008-09 and 2009-10. The annual report of the company suggests that global recession as well as capacity constraints slowed the company’s growth. Officials in the company were unwilling to talk about the performance.

In 2009-10, the company’s sales fell 16.2% to Rs 883.92 crore and profit after tax (PAT) fell 14.77% to Rs 108.39 crore. In 2008-09, sales increased 12.62% to Rs 1,058.89 crore, PAT fell 11.38% to Rs 150.39 crore. Antrix’s performance depends on Indian and overseas space funding.

From 2003 to 2010, Indian space funding increased 144%, from Rs 2,368 crore. In 2010-11 the Indian space budget rose 38% to Rs 5,778 crore amounting to about 0.14% of GDP. It is expected to touch Rs 10,000 crore by 2014. Almost half of the budget is focused on development and operation of launch vehicles and related activities. The remaining is devoted to space technology and applications, satellite operations and satellite communications.

According to the report ‘Space Report 2009: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity’, despite a troubled financial environment, the space industry grew in 2008, with estimated budgets and revenues from public and private sources of $257 billion. This was a growth of more than $6 billion over the previous year.