L & T Posts 29% Growth In Net To Rs 531.44 Crore

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has registered a 29 per cent increase in its profit after tax at Rs 531.44 crore for the year ended March 31, 1998, compared with Rs 411.35 crore posted in the year to March 31, 1997. The company has recommended a dividend of 65 per cent for the year.

Against the background of a general slowdown in the economy, L&T has managed to take its sales and service income up by 7 per cent to Rs 5,677 crore during the period under review from Rs 5,305 crore in the previous year.

Profit before tax stood at Rs 590 crore, showing an increase of 25 per cent.

During the year, the company's construction equipment manufacturing undertaking at Bangalore was sold and transferred to a new joint venture, L&T Komatsu Ltd.

The transaction resulted in an extraordinary profit of Rs 108 crore, which is included in the profit before tax.

Last year, the company also spun off its wholly owned subsidiary, L&T Information Technology Ltd.

Both these initiatives are expected to significantly enhance the competitive position of the company in the respective businesses.

During the year, L&T booked orders worth Rs 6,440 crore, representing a 14 per cent increase over the previous year.

The company already has a healthy order backlog of Rs 5,250 crore as on March 31, 1998, representing an increase of 22 per cent over the previous year. Some of the major ones included the Rs 315 crore order from HPL Cogeneration Ltd, Haldia, for a combined cycle co-generation power plant being built on a built- own- operate basis, an order worth Rs 300 crore from Hindustan Petroleum Corpora-tion Ltd, Vishakapatnam for DHDS blocks, a Rs 282 crore order from Indian Petrochemicals, Gandhar, for another captive cogeneration plant.

The company's performance during the year under review in the engineering and construction segment was very good and L&T bagged a host of local and foreign orders in the sector.

The company's total production of cement and sale of clinker went up to 6.7 million tonne against 5.5 million tonne in the previous year, notching up a rise of 23 per cent.

All its operating plants performed well with an overall capacity utilisation of 109 per cent.