Mumbai: Engineering major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on Monday 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 percent 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 percent, 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 percent 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.
Segment-wise, the company's hydrocarbon business, which has been reporting a steady growth, witnessed a decline of 49 percent in revenue to Rs 1,555 crore over the last quarter, mainly on account of lower opening order book and deferment of project awards.
Its international sales constituted 51 percent of the total customer revenue of the segment for the quarter.
This segment secured fresh orders valued Rs 5,704 crore, registering a growth of 80 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year driven by a large size international order. International orders constituted 94 percent of the total order inflow of the segment.
Its infrastructure segment's revenue stood at Rs 7,148 crore for the quarter driven by heavy civil infrastructure, transportation infrastructure and water and renewable energy businesses. The company bagged contracts worth Rs 14,257 crore taking the order book to 1,36,450 crore.
L&T's developmental projects segment recorded revenue of Rs 2,161 crore during the quarter.
The power segment recorded revenue of Rs 982 crore during the quarter, registering a reduction of 32 percent due to depleting order book and lower revenue accretion on jobs nearing completion. L&T bagged fresh orders worth Rs 1,588 crore in this segment.
The heavy engineering segment reported revenue of Rs 835 crore registering a y-o-y decline of 4 percent over the corresponding quarter of the previous year mainly on account of delayed order inflow and depleted order book.
The segment secured fresh orders valued at Rs 2,566 crore during the April-June quarter, of which international orders constituted 18 percent.
"We expect good prospects in the medium-term from revival of core sectors such as infrastructure, power, minerals and metals, defence and oil and gas when the initiatives by the new government at the centre take definitive shape and rigour. L&T is confident of sustaining its growth momentum by utilising the emerging opportunities for which it has positioned itself well," Raman added.
