Private L&T’s Q1 profit collapses by 37%

Engineering and construction giant L&T on Friday reported a sharp fall of 37.3 per cent in consolidated net profit to Rs 606.19 crore for the first quarter of the current fiscal on slower execution of some projects and higher expenses.

The company had clocked Rs 966.89 crore net profit in the April-June quarter of 2014-15. 

"Consolidated Profit After Tax (PAT) for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 at Rs 606 crore was lower vis-?-vis PAT of Rs 967 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year," the company said in a statement. The PAT for the corresponding quarter of previous year including divestment gains was Rs 1,383 crore. The company's net sales grew 6.73 per cent to Rs 20,252.17 crore during the quarter as against Rs 18,974.75 crore revenue from operations in the year-ago period.

L&T said its international revenue during the quarter, at Rs 6,609 crore, constituted 32 per cent of the total revenue. Total expenditure rose to Rs 18,584.18 crore as against Rs 17,271.07 in the year-ago period. The company said the "business environment stays challenging in the short term" and the domestic infrastructure sector awaits the translation of various policy and budgetary initiatives into a definitive capital expenditure programme.

"The company successfully won new orders worth Rs 26,376 crore at the group level during the quarter...International orders during the quarter at 8,110 crore constituted 31 per cent of the total order inflow". Consolidated order book of the group stood at Rs 2,38,973 crore, higher by 22 per cent on y-o-y basis. 

International order book constituted 26 per cent of the total order book. 

Its infrastructure segment achieved customer revenue of Rs 8,303 crore for the quarter registering y-o-y growth of 16 per cent, led by heavy civil infrastructure, power transmission and distribution and transportation infrastructure. International revenue constituted 30 per cent of the total customer revenue of the segment during quarter.