L&T reports 37 pct rise in net profit during Q3 2018-19

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro Friday reported a 37 per cent increase in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2018, at Rs 2,041.62 crore mainly on the back of strong execution of project businesses. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 1,489.98 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Its revenues from operations for the October-December quarter grew to Rs 35,708.87 crore from Rs 28,747.45 crore in Q3 FY18, registering a growth of 24.21 per cent. International revenue during the quarter stood at Rs 11,476 crore constituted 32 per cent of the total revenue, lower than 35 per cent in the previous year.

During the quarter, L&T secured fresh orders worth Rs 42,233 crore as against Rs 48,130 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. "Overall, we have been able to grow our revenues, PAT as well as our order book. But, our incremental order inflow declined 12 per cent. However, when we look at the nine months performance, the inflow has increased by 16 per cent," Group chief financial officer (CFO) R Shankar Raman told reporters here.

We have managed to pick up significant orders in the first two quarters so we have a cushion of larger orders, which puts us on the good course on our guidance of 10-12 per cent increase in inflow for FY19, Raman said. He noted that the quarter witnessed delays in order awards due to deferment of select segments like transportation, infrastructure, heavy civil infrastructure and power business.

Its international orders at Rs 11,454 crore constituted 27 per cent of the total order inflow, while the domestic orders declined by 22 per cent. "Our international orders improved by 30 per cent despite volatile international environment caused by the socio-economic turbulence, economic sanctions, duty safeguards and geopolitical tensions," he said.

The company's order book as on December 31, 2018, stands at Rs 284,049 crore. On segment-wise performance, its infrastructure business achieved revenue of Rs 18,206 crore, while the power segment recorded income of Rs 905 crore, heavy engineering segment at Rs 605 crore, while the defence business at Rs 1,005 crore.

When asked about SEBI denying permission for its Rs 9,000 crore share buyback offer, L&T CEO and Managing Director S N Subrahmanyan said, "it is a harsh order and we are studying it and trying to see what can be done. We will talk to SEBI and discuss how to overcome the situation.

Our approach is that rationality will prevail." L&T had proposed to buy back up to 6.1 crore shares from shareholders at a price of Rs 1,475 per equity share, aggregating to Rs 9,000 crore He further said the intent behind the buyback offer was to create value for the shareholders. The company scrip closed 0.85 per cent down at Rs 1,285.55 a piece on the BSE, as against a 0.47 per cent correction in the benchmark.