Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) clocked 84 per cent increase in net profit for the second quarter ending September 30, due to a one-time gain from the divestment of the General Insurance business.

The group for the quarter reported ₹1,434 crore, which in the comparable quarter of the previous year was ₹778 crore. The revenue from operations increased by 8 per cent to ₹24,923 crore (₹22,976 crore).

L&T's Group CFO R Shankar Raman told mediapersons on Tuesday that consolidated Profit After Tax (PAT) before exceptional items for the quarter was at ₹1,032 crore, which is higher by 41 per cent comparable to the previous year quarter.

As part of its strategic plan, the company has divested the General Insurance business. If the divestment gain is included then the PAT for the quarter increases to ₹1,435 crore vis-à-vis PAT of ₹778 crore, clocked in the comparable quarter of the previous year, he said.

Raman said that business conditions continue to remain challenging, particularly for the capital goods industry.

Reconsigning the fact that recovery is not going to be dramatic, the group has taken initiatives such as operational excellence, digitalisation and rationalisation of manpower across departments, which has led to the lay-off of 14,000 people in the last six moths. The initiatives have resulted in redundancy of role and as a consequence job cuts, he explained.

Raman said that during the quarter the consolidated order inflow stood at ₹31,119 crore, which is a year-on-year increase of 11 per cent.

Much of the orders have come from infrastructure sector in the domestic market and hydrocarbon business in the international market.

The international orders at ₹7,386 crore constituted 24 per cent of the total order inflow. For the quarter consolidated order book of the group stood at ₹2,51,773 crore, which is higher by 4 per cent on a year-on-year basis. International order book constituted 29 per cent of the total order book, he said.

The company in a media statement infrastructure segment achieved customer revenue of ₹11,332 crore for the quarter registering a year on year growth of 6 per cent. Delays in customer clearances impacted the progress of a few jobs under execution during the quarter.

Deputy Managing Director and President of the group, S N Subrahmanyan also addressing the media said that the group has 95,000 employees but due to change in technology certain employees, who were relevant earlier are not relevant anymore.

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