Larsen & Toubro on Friday reported a 37 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to ₹2,041.62 crore for the third quarter ended December 2018, against ₹1,489.98 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue jumped 24 per cent to ₹35,708.87 crore.

India’s biggest engineering and construction firm reported a net profit of ₹1,489.98 crore and revenue of ₹28,747.45 crore in the same period a year ago.

Lull expected

The consolidated order book of L&T totalled ₹2,84,049 crore as at December 31, 2018, up by 5 per cent over December, 2017, of which international orders were 11 per cent.

“There are quarters that are good and the others dry out. We are hopeful that we stay on line. The pipeline of orders looks encouraging but, we need to be prudent and plan in advance. It is the election quarter, which could have a lesser impact. Thus, there is a possibility of a lull at the end of the fourth quarter and first quarter of the next financial order,” said R Shankar Raman, Chief Financial Officer, L&T. The firm secured orders worth ₹42,233 crore during the October-December quarter, which witnessed delays in order awards due to deferment of select prospects in project businesses, mainly in transportation infrastructure, heavy civil infrastructure and power.

““In the first six months, we had a lot of orders and the conversion is on, the costs of the jobs is there. Normally, as we complete jobs... there are several jobs that are on the verge of being completed and a lot of negotiations happens and there are settlements. Some of these settlements will slip into next year, cost will stay in this year. We think we will stand within the guideline,” said Raman.

The infrastructure segment secured orders of ₹21,908 crore during the quarter while the power segment continued to witness muted prospects due to limited opportunities in the face of over-capacity in the sector coupled with aggressive competition.

 

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