Punj Lloyd posts profit of Rs 268.53 cr

Engineering conglomerate Punj Lloyd today reported standalone net profit of Rs 268.53 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2015 mainly on account of a sharp rise in other income.
It had reported net profit of Rs 5 lakh for the January- March quarter of the previous fiscal, 2013-14.
Its total income from operations on a standalone basis dipped sharply to Rs 1,289.91 crore during the March quarter of last fiscal, from Rs 2,037.21 crore in the same quarter of the 2013-14 fiscal, the company said in a filing to the BSE.
Punj Lloyd showed a big jump in 'other income' to Rs 569.63 crore during the March quarter, from a mere Rs 11.17 crore in the year-ago period.

The company did not provide figures for the quarter on a consolidated basis. On being contacted, it said: "We have declared our consolidated results only for the year end and not for the quarter."
On the consolidated basis, the net loss of the company widened to Rs 1,141.11 crore for the last fiscal as against Rs 548.23 crore in 2013-14.

Its total income for the year dipped to Rs 7,252.35 crore during the year from Rs 11,123.32 crore in 2013-14.
Punj Lloyd Group chairman Atul Punj said: "Globally, FY15 has been a challenging year for companies in infrastructure sector and Punj Lloyd was no exception. We had entered the year with an insufficient order book, which is reflected in the reduced turnover for 2014-15.

"Profits and cash flows were further affected by deferment of settlement of Company's claims on certain projects, both domestic and overseas."
The good news is that the order book bounced back in the last fiscal and the total new orders booked in the year surpassed the orders booked during the two year period between 2012-2014, he added.
"Punj Lloyd secured a Rs 666 crore contract from the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for the prestigious Asian Highway. Internationally, the company won Rs 3,515 crore (USD 581 million) tank farm project for Petronas' Rapid project in Malaysia and added a new country to its portfolio by securing the Rs 1,400 crore (USD 236.09 million) Tankage order in Kuwait," he said.

"We are aggressively pursuing a revised business strategy that is focused on overcoming the challenges at hand today and in FY2015 we have been successful into putting several building blocks in place to chart the Company's revival," Punj added.