L&T Q1 net profit jumps 43% to Rs 14.72 bn, income increases by 17%

Shares of the company closed 0.19 per cent lower at Rs 1,320.05 apiece on BSE

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) today reported a 43.14 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 14.72 billion in the June quarter.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 10.28 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.

Its total income in the quarter under review rose by 17.12 per cent to Rs 285.27 billion, compared with Rs 243.55 billion in the year-ago period.

"The strength of the performance is borne out of the fact that the company has done very well across various parameters and exceeded previous fiscal quarter results," company's group chief financial officer R Shankar Raman told reporters here.

Raman said the revenues, which is a part of total income, for the periods up to June 30, 2017, includes excise duty collected from customers. Revenue from July 1, 2017, onwards is exclusive of goods and service tax which subsumed excise duty.

The company won new orders worth Rs 361.42 billion at the group level during the June quarter, recording a 37 per cent growth, with pick-up in domestic ordering activity.

International orders at Rs 94.04 billion constituted 26 per cent of the total order inflow.

"Infrastructure, hydrocarbon and heavy engineering businesses largely contributed to the growth in order inflows during the quarter. We are witnessing a strong tendering activity, especially from the public sector," he said.

Also, Raman said sponsors are looking at opportunities to put capital to work and this is a good sign for the industry and L&T to ensure robust growth in order inflow backed up by investment momentum.

"Public sector spending by the central and state governments and PSUs, aided by increased funding by bilateral and multi-lateral agencies are leading to building of essential infrastructure," he said.

Progress on resolution of stressed private sector corporates through the IBC, according to him, is expected to resolve the issue of overleveraged businesses and kick-start the flow of banking sector credit growth.

The consolidated order book stood at Rs 2717.32 billion as on June 30, 2018, of which international segment accounted for 23 per cent.

"We continue to focus on profitable execution of our orders, continuous improvement of working capital and cost competitiveness," Raman said.

While the company's infrastructure business recorded revenues of Rs 121.35 billion, the power segment clocked a turnover of Rs 10.80 billion and the heavy engineering business reported an income of Rs 33.4 billion.

The company has carved out new business vertical - defence engineering - as a part of its restructuring strategy, which comprises defence and aerospace business (part of heavy engineering segment till March 31, 2018) and shipbuilding business, which was a part of 'others' segment till then.

The segment recorded customer revenue of Rs 7.27 billion, posting a 34 per cent growth over the same quarter last year, with progress on projects under execution.

The electrical and automation segment posted customer revenue of Rs 12.79 billion during the June quarter, a 6 per cent year-on-year growth over the year-ago period. The hydrocarbon business registered revenues of Rs 35.11 billion and the IT and technology services segment revenue stood at Rs 33.24 crore.

The company's financial services segment recorded customer revenue of Rs 30.58 crore during the quarter, mainly driven by growth in loan assets and disbursements in the focused business verticals of rural and housing finance.

Its developmental projects segment posted customer revenue of Rs 14.94 crore during the quarter.