In a CNBC-TV18 exclusive, AM Naik says that the global economy is in a challenging enviornment and that L&T is unlikely to see 15% order-book growth.
"If you want to keep up with the growth momentum of 15-20%, you need to have your order book also grow by 15%," he reasons. "Unfortunately, we have this year, a situation where such a thing is not happening."
With the way the current year has panned out, Naik is skeptical about performance in FY13 too. "At this point, it appears to be even more challenging, how do we get over it and still really find our way into coming back into growth trajectory," he says.
If you look at L&T, in the core sectors, infrastructure, the strategic sectors, whether it is defence, nuclear or aerospace, all are under pressure have problems that need to be dealt with.
"We are all going through a very challenging time and in last several decades, hardly has there been a situation where the global economy is in bad shape and the European crisis happened at the same time," Naik points out.
There is now a restriction of code of conduct on account of the upcoming elections. However, according to Naik, once the five state elections get over, growth could be better. Meanwhile, it is going to be business as usual. "I sincerely hope that 2012 emerges better than what we all felt in the last six months that 2012 will really even further the slowdown," he says.
