Bangalore: Bangalore-headquartered Hindustan Aeronautics has climbed 11 notches up to reach the 34th position in the list of top 100 defence companies in the world.

The list released by the US-based magazine Defence News saw HAL improving its position from 45th, with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAe Systems, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon occupying the top five slots in that order, an HAL release said.

The ratings are given based on the company's sales and turnover and HAL's leap forward to the 34th position is being attributed to a series of upgradation programmes and ongoing new projects, it said. Reacting to the rating, HAL chairman Ashok K Baweja said, "These are exciting days for us and the current ranking is a testimony to our renewed focus on all fronts. We are hopeful of breaking into the top 25 next year and our current order book position is just a pointer to that."

HAL, now a Navratna company, achieved a sales turnover of Rs 7,784 crore ($1.82 billion) in 2006-07, a year-on-year growth of 46 per cent. The company's profits (PBT) soared to Rs 1,744 crore, a jump of 55 per cent over the last year. The value of production has also gone up by 56 per cent at Rs 9,202 crore and the exports registered a growth of 45 per cent at Rs 271 crore, it said.