Cautiously optimistic on order scenario in India: L&T

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is cautiously optimistic on the order scenario in India, says whole-time director and Sr (Construction) EVP SN Subrahmanyan.

L&T Construction, which is a part of Larsen and Toubro bagged orders worth a total of Rs 1,504 crore on Thrusday, which include a major project contract from Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18 Subrahmanyan said, these projects are focused more on electrification and power transmission segments.
He also added that the company is bidding for more projects in west Asia region.

Below is the verbatim transcript of SN Subrahmanyan's interview on CNBC-TV18 

Q: In August, you bagged Rs 1,500 crore worth orders, the order entry is back in the power space, you are getting a lot more orders and what kind of money will you make on these orders?
A: These are planned projects that have been going on the rural electrification as well as on the translation part of the power transmission and distribution side. These are routine orders that you tend to get as you go through. I would not go to the extent of saying that things are suddenly okay and a trend has begun.
This is part of the process of what we will go through the year-end and one part of the order we have received. It is good to get those orders and our profitability would be same as what normally achieved. There is nothing different that we have done. Looking at the market we would continue to be cautiously optimistic about it. Q: The parallel development is the steep decline of the rupee which offers certain protection to domestic companies because foreign competition is that much more expensive. Are you seeing that already working in, are you able to price orders to domestic buyers better and even get more export orders?
A: It is too early to predict. This rupee depreciation has occurred over the last one and a half to two months and all of us are reacting to it and still unable to fathom the extent of which it is going to hit us.
As one sees it now, it is little worrying because quite a few tasks that we do have import component, to some extent organisations work our treasury does hedge, take forward cover and protect ourselves but at the same time, nobody has seen such a steep fall of the rupee.