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Engineering and construction company Larsen and Toubro (L&T) reported a 7 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at ₹862 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared with ₹806 crore in the year-ago period.
Revenue grew 10.6 per cent to ₹21,159 crore, from ₹19,131 crore reported in the corresponding period last fiscal.
Order book The company secured orders worth ₹39,797 crore during the three-month period, an increase of 17 per cent from last year. International orders inflow, at ₹6,756 crore, constituted 17 per cent of the total inflow.
Major orders were in the infrastructure, power and hydrocarbon segments.
The consolidated order book of the group, at ₹2.14 lakh crore, was up 14 per cent as of September 30, over the ₹1.87 lakh crore last year. International orders constitute 27 per cent.
R Shankar Raman, CFO, said a slight improvement in the business environment was visible, though demand and recovery would be three to four quarters away as policy decisions would take time to translate into implementation.
On FY15 guidance, he said 20 per cent in order inflow would sustain, however, the revenue growth could end up between 10 and 15 per cent. On margins, there could be a drop of 150-200 basis points from the 12.3 per cent achieved last year due to the hydrocarbon segment. Operating profit margins dropped to 11 per cent in the quarter from 13.1 per cent.
SN Subrahmanyan, Senior Executive Vice-President (Infrastructure & Construction), said it required time and considerable domain expertise to put stalled large projects back on track and the Government’s sense of urgency was evident. Improving macroeconomic conditions on the back of stable currency rates, soft oil and other commodity prices have encouraged investment interests. Measures such as the decontrol of diesel prices, the Ordinance for coal block e-auctioning, liberalised FDI norms in the construction sector show the Government’s commitment to stimulating growth, he said. .
On Friday, the L&T scrip closed 0.86 per cent lower at ₹1,652.80 on the BSE.
Also read: L&T: >Building on a healthy order book
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