Calcutta, Jan. 31: Simplex Infrastructures Ltd is planning a foray into real estate development and has submitted an application with the Bengal housing board authorities for developing projects through joint ventures.

“Simplex has 80 lakh square feet of residential and commercial high rise construction projects in hand, including the overseas one for the Hilton group in Qatar,” said B.D. Mundhra, chairman and managing director.

The company’s order book position is over Rs 4,000 crore with a gestation period of one-and-a-half years, out of which Rs 600 crore worth of projects are in Qatar and other West Asian countries.

“We are keen on joint ventures for projects in Calcutta, especially in the New Town area. We are also actively bidding for other projects and have bid for one with L&T for a mass housing project and another with Bengal Ambuja for the convention centre,” Mundhra said.

With a presence in Bahrain and West Indies, Simplex is looking at other destinations like Oman, Abu Dhabi, Sudan and Yemen.

“According to the law of any given country, we might be required to form alliances with local players for projects in that country,” Mundhra said.

Simplex has received quite a few contracts to build bridges in West Asian countries.

The company has reported a 13.05 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 11 crore for the quarter ended December against Rs 9.73 crore in the same period last year.

Profit before tax rose 23.09 per cent at Rs 14.02 crore compared with Rs 11.39 crore last year.

Net sales surged 43.37 per cent to Rs 374.70 crore from Rs 261.35 crore in the same period last year.

The segment revenue from overseas projects for the reporting quarter recorded a 310.5 per cent jump in net sales to Rs 33.13 crore from Rs 8.07 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.