L&T reports two-fold rise in net profit to Rs 966.89 cr

Engineering major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) today reported over two-fold increase in the consolidated net profit at Rs 966.89 crore for the April-June quarter, mainly on the back of gain on disinvestments and stake sale in one of its projects.
The company had reported a net profit of Rs 458.59 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.
Its revenues for the quarter under review increased 10 per cent to Rs 18,974.75 crore from Rs 17,241.14 crore in the year-ago period.
"The two-fold increase in PAT is a due to an expectational gain of Rs 249.28 crore on divestment of strategic investment in City Union Bank and stake sale in L&T Finance Holdings, which was listed in 2011. Stake sale in L&TFH was necessitated to comply with Sebi regulations to reduce promoter share," Group Chief Financial Office R Shankar Raman said.

Besides the exceptional gain, the company's PAT witnessed an exponential growth backed by divestment in its Dhamra Port project in Odisha, which resulted in a gain of Rs 1,350 crore that led to a significant revenue growth, he said.
"It is our strategy to monetise our developmental projects as a part of our subsidiary L&T IDPL portfolio management. This helps us raise money for investing in other projects," Raman said, adding, "We will continue to look at monetising such assets."

The company bagged fresh orders worth Rs 33,408 crore during the quarter registering a y-o-y growth of 11 per cent, largely in the infrastructure, hydrocarbon and heavy engineering segments. The international order inflow during the quarter was Rs 14,754 crore.

Consolidated order book of the group stood at Rs 1,95,392 crore as on June 30. International orders constitute 26 per cent of the total kitty.
"The overall sentiment in the country has improved especially after the elections. But the ground reality has remained much the same. Perhaps it is unnatural to expect change in ground reality so soon. But we believe the domestic market holds large potential awaiting impetus through policy measures and conducive investment environment," he said.