L&T Q3 consolidated net profit jumps 15% at Rs 2,560 crore

Engineering and construction major Larsen& Toubro (L&T) on Wednesday posted a 15 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2,560.32 crore for the quarter to December 31, on the back of higher income.
The company had clocked a consolidated net profit after tax and share in profit/(loss) of joint ventures/associates from continuing operations of Rs 2,218.68 crore in the year-ago period, the company said in a regulatory filing to the BSE.

Its consolidated total income during October-December increased to Rs 36,717.60 crore, against Rs 34,823.08 crore in the year-ago period, the filing said.
Total expenses also increased to Rs 33,494.37 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 31,421.86 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
"The company successfully won new orders worth Rs 41,579 crore at the group level during the quarter ended December 31, 2019, amid subdued business environment. International orders during the quarter at Rs 17,901 crore increased to 43 per cent of the total order inflow, on large value order wins in power transmission and distribution and metallurgical and material handling business," the company said in a statement.
The consolidated order book of the group stood at Rs 3,06,280 crore as on December 31, 2019, registering a reasonably high growth of 5 per cent over March 2019.

L&T Technology Services Q2 net profits rises 7.8% at Rs 205.8 cr

Larsen & Toubro Technology Services (LTTS) on Friday posted a 7.8 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 205.8 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.
The company had registered a net profit of Rs 191 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal, it said in a regulatory filing.

Its revenue grew 10.7 per cent to Rs 1,402.1 crore in the said period as against Rs 1,266.1 crore a year ago, it added.
"Our Q2 revenue growth of 2.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter in constant currency was a bit softer than what we expected. While plant engineering and medical devices each grew in excess of 20 per cent year-on-year and was in-line with our expectation, the growth in Telecom & Hitech and Transportation came below expectations on account of decision-making delays amid continuing uncertainty over global trade negotiations," LTTS CEO and Managing Director Keshab Panda said.
The company sees a likelihood of some of these trends persisting in the current quarter as well, and therefore, expect third quarter growth in these segments to be relatively muted, he added.
"With greater visibility into the second half, our revised US dollar revenue growth guidance stands at 10 per cent. We continue to see significant growth opportunities ahead," he added.
During the quarter, LTTS won eight multi-million dollar deals across all major industry segments, including new digital engineering programmes for automotive, plant engineering and medical customers.
"We remain confident about our capabilities across a wide spectrum of industries that is helping us mitigate headwinds in certain segments and continue the double-digit growth trajectory," Panda said.
The company's revenue in US dollar terms grew 11.6 per cent year-on-year to USD 197.7 million.
Its headcount stood at 16,789 at the end of the quarter, a net addition of 876 during the quarter. Its attrition stood at 13.4 per cent.
The company has also re-designated Abhishek Sinha as COO and whole-time director of the company.
Also, Renuka Ramnath has resigned as independent director of the company with effect from October 18, 2019 due to other professional commitments, it said.

With on-time delivery, L&T stakes claim to build warships and submarines

Underlining its capability of building complex warships and delivering them faster than other private shipyards, and even the four defence public sector undertaking (DPSU) yards, Larsen & Toubro Shipbuilding on Tuesday laid the keels of two "new generation offshore patrol vessels" (NG-OPVs) ahead of its contracted schedule.
This is part of an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) order for seven OPVs that L&T won in 2015. It stipulates delivery between 2018-2021, but L&T is determined to deliver all of them early, breaking with defence shipyards' long tradition of late delivery.

"The first OPV [named ICGS Vikram]... was delivered in April 2018, ahead of schedule. The second OPV, launched in January 2018, is being readied for sea trials and is planned to be delivered ahead of schedule shortly," said an L&T press release on Tuesday.
Industry analysts say L&T is demonstrating its capability in order to position itself for the coming multi-billion dollar Project 75-I contract to build six new submarines. The defence ministry plans to entrust this to the private sector under the "strategic partner" (SP) programme.
For several years, L&T told the defence ministry it would build the six Project 75-I submarines in its Hazira shipyard, where it built hull sections for the navy's Arihant-class indigenous nuclear submarines. When the ministry argued that Hazira was too shallow, L&T spent Rs 50 billion on building a spanking new, 900-acre shipyard at Kathupalli, near Chennai, to pursue its warship building ambitions.
“With a long term commitment to the defence sector, we have made huge investments in Kattupalli shipyard and seven other dedicated defence production units to serve the nation,” said L&T chief, SN Subrahmanyan, on Tuesday.
L&T does not face serious competition from India's 22 other private shipyards, most of which are small shipyards that cannot build large vessels. Just four have the capacity and capability to build warships, but two of those -- Bharti and ABG – are insolvent. The other two – L&T and Reliance Defence’s Pipavav shipyard – run at a loss, but are kept afloat by their parent companies' deep pockets.
Meanwhile, the defence ministry channels most major warship orders to four DPSU shipyards – Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Kolkata, Goa Shipyard Ltd, Hindustan Shipyard Ltd – and to Kerala state PSU, Cochin Shipyard Ltd, which has a dock large enough to build aircraft carriers.
L&T, however, intends to challenge this established order. It is building a ICG order for 54 fast interceptor boats. Earlier this month, it delivered the 39th and 40th of these boats, two years ahead of schedule. In March, L&T delivered to the navy India’s first indigenously designed and built “floating dock” which is used for repairing warships and submarines of upto 8,000 tons displacement.
L&T has also received the largest export order received by any Indian Shipyard. The Vietnamese defence ministry has chosen it to design and construct “high speed patrol vessels” for the Vietnam Border Guard.
For designing future warships, L&T has established its own Warship Design Centre at Manapakkam, Chennai.
However, senior L&T executives say that, until they are allowed to compete with DPSU shipyard for building capital warships – corvettes, frigates and destroyers – low-volume orders for smaller vessels would not allow private yards to make profits.
The navy, however, is reluctant to give capital warship orders to private shipyards, which they consider inexperienced. However, Goa Shipyard, which has never built a frigate or destroyer, is being entrusted with an impending Rs 10,000 crore (100 billion) contract to build two Russian-designed Krivak III frigates.
Arguing that private yards should “build their skills in a graduated and calibrated way”, a senior admiral says private shipyards should first build their skills while constructing the eponymous Next Generation Missile Vessels, a forthcoming order that would be reserved for private shipyards.

L&T Q4 net up 4.7% to Rs 31.67 bn on higher order intake, beats estimates

Industrial group Larsen & Toubro Ltd posted a nearly 5 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit on Monday, beating analysts' estimates, on higher order intake during the period.
Net profit rose to 31.67 billion rupees ($469.78 million) in the three months ended March 31 from 30.25 billion rupees a year earlier, L&T said.

Analysts on average had expected the Mumbai-headquartered company to post a net profit of 30.03 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Revenue from operations jumped 10.5 percent to 406.78 billion rupees.
L&T's order intake rose 5 percent to 495.57 billion rupees in the quarter.