L&T books orders worth $1 billion in March

Despite the industrial slowdown, the engineering giant, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), got around $1 billion worth of orders in the last week of March. With this, its order backlog has risen 13 per cent to Rs 77,000 crore, from Rs 68,000 crore in December 2008.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, Tata Steel, Punatsangchhu hydroelectric project in Bhutan, Power Grid Corporation of India, Rail Vikas Nigam, Indian Railways and Nuclear Power Corporation of India have placed orders worth Rs 5,177 crore with the company.

“L&T’s diversified portfolio and ability to work across sectors helped it bag orders even during the downturn. We are expected to maintain the margin and growth in 2008-09,”said YM Deosthalee, chief financial officer of L&T.

About 75 per cent of the orders are from engineering and construction sectors and the remaining mainly from the heavy engineering segment. Of the total backlog, about 20 per cent would be from overseas, said a company executive.

Recent brokerage reports on L&T recently had said that the slowdown had affected the momentum of orders L&T had been receiving. Based on that, Edelweiss has given a reduce recommendation of L&T stock, while Citigroup has downgraded it to sell. Credit Suisse has also maintained an under perform on the stock. The state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals had booked in Rs 10,576 crore worth orders in the March ended quarter, while Siemens and Areva bagged orders worth over Rs 200 crore each.

MRPL has awarded Rs 1,344 crore worth order for building a diesel hydrotreating unit and a hydrogen generation unit in the Phase - III refinery project at Mangalore. The projects will enhance capacity and upgrade fuel quality to meet Euro IV specifications.