L&T net profit up 7% at Rs 862 crore

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) reported a tepid 6.87 per cent increase in consolidated net profit today at Rs 861.75 crore in the September quarter due to subdued sales from its power and hydrocarbon verticals.
The company had reported a Rs 806 crore net profit in the year-ago period after tax, minority interest and share in profit of associates, it said in a statement.
The company's consolidated revenue rose by 10.60 per cent to Rs 21,159.35 crore from Rs 19,130.77 crore in the same period during the last fiscal year.
"Sales growth is a reflection of low activity and challenges in execution in the prevailing market conditions. There has been an improvement in the environment, but the real push from growth-oriented policy initiatives taken by the government will take time to translate into ground reality. Until the transformation in completed, the situation will continue to remain challenging," L&T's Group Chief Financial Officer R Shankar Raman told reporters here.

He said that revenues during the quarter were boosted mainly due to better performance in infrastructure and developmental projects.
The infrastructure segment achieved a revenue of Rs 9,633 crore, registering a growth of 27 per cent, driven by a surge in execution by all businesses of the segment, while international sales constituted 27 per cent of its total revenue, Raman said.
"Higher revenues in the infrastructure segment is on the back of large order book. We are executing across business verticals. The subdued growth in sales reflects lower activity levels and challenging execution in power, metals and hydrocarbon sectors," he said.

The developmental projects segment recorded a revenue of Rs 993 crore, reflecting an increase in developing and operating infrastructure as well as power generation assets sales, mainly due to divestment gains, besides commencement of commercial production at the 1,400-MW Rajpura power plant.