L&T Q1 net jumps 22 pc to Rs 1,472 cr, bags new orders worth

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) reported a 21.22 per cent jump in consolidated net profit for the June quarter at Rs 1,472.58 crore mainly on improved execution. The company had reported a profit after tax of Rs 1,214.78 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Its net profit from "continuing operations" came at Rs 1,697.62 crore.

Its revenues from operations grew 9.74 per cent to Rs 29,635.95 crore from Rs 27,004.77 crore in Q1 of FY19. The international revenues constituted 31 per cent at Rs 9,268 crore. "This has been a very stable quarter on the operational front. On the other hand, the Competition Commission of India accorded approval to Schneider Electric for acquisition of our electrical and automation business. As a result, the electrical business has been classified as 'discontinued operations', consolidated at profit level," L&T's Chief Financial Officer R Shankar Raman told reporters here.

As a result, the PAT from continuing operations stood at Rs 1,361 crore as on June 30 as against Rs 1,129 crore, registering a growth of 20.5 per cent, he said. During the quarter, the company bagged new orders worth Rs 38,700 crore registering a growth of 11 per cent with the international orders constituting 23 per cent of the total order inflow.

"Order wins in infrastructure and power segments were the major contributors to the order inflow during the quarter. Though some orders which were expected to come in the said quarter were deferred, which we hope to get materialised in the coming period, we managed to bag significant orders despite being election quarter," Raman said.

He further said that orders from public sector undertakings and private sector enabled growth for the quarter. Nearly 50 per cent of the orders came in from the private sector, Raman said. The consolidated order book of the group stood at Rs 2.94 lakh crore as on June 30 with international order book constituting 21 per cent of the total book.

About Mindtree, Raman said that as on June 30, the company held 28.86 per cent stake in Mindtree which was later increased to 60.59 per cent. "Subsequent to the acquisition of control, the financials will be consolidated as a subsidiary from second quarter of the current fiscal," Raman said.

L&T Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director SN Subrahmanyan, while replying to a query on leadership of Mindtree said, "since the Executive Chairman and CEO have moved on, we have found the leadership and we will announce it shortly." He, however, refused to divulge further details. Recently Mindtree appointed A M Naik as the company's new non-executive chairman.

Meanwhile, the company accounted for Rs 93.55 crore during the quarter towards impairment of investment in L&T Halol Shamlaji Tollway special purpose vehicle against which insolvency proceedings have been initiated post June 30 under the insolvency code. Oriental Bank of Commerce had pressed for insolvency proceedings against L&T Halol Shamlaji Tollway, an SPV of L&T Infrastructure Development Projects at NCLT's Chennai Bench.

"There has been an admission by NCLT for the insolvency proceeding of the road project where we are not the majority holders. Banks, which are the large stakeholders in the SPV have moved the NCLT and consequently in recognition of that development, we have impaired the investments. The outcome will come in the due course but we did not wanted to wait for it, so we have impaired it," he added..