L&T misses revenue guidance; positive on growth

For engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro, it's not been smooth sailing. It's order book stands at Rs 1,45,723 crore, lower than its own guidance last year. And while this was a disappointment, it still managed to meet street expectations with its fourth quarter numbers.

Net profit grew nearly 25% year-on-year and total gross revenues grew 2%. But L&T's EBITDA margins declined to 13.65% over the quarter, reports Swati Khandelwal Jain of CNBC-TV18.
The fourth quarter has not been bad for India's top engineering conglomerate but the economic slowdown is having an impact on L&T with the company missing its revenue guidance by 4 percentage points, mostly due to project delays.
R Shankar Raman, CFO, L&T, says that we have been maintaining margins at 13.5% but competition is intense and there is a 50 bps volatility factored in now.”
Going ahead, L&T remains bullish. The company is confident of a gradual upswing in the Indian economy in FY13 and says with increasing government focus on sectors such as infrastructure, power, oil & gas and fertilizers will have a positive impact on order inflow and revenues.
AM Naik, chairman, L&T, says “15-20% growth in revenue and 15-20% in order intake were deferred last year, quite a few in defence and other areas and they are at the age of being given away, and quite a few are already L1, that is lowest in price, therefore we have more confidence now.”
Moreover, the company is also banking on international markets to offset the current domestic slowdown in demand.
The company is also stepping up its international presence by expanding more into the Middle East markets and hydrocarbon remains its key sector focus. It hopes the international business growth from 18% to 25% in a short term. The company has planned capex of approx Rs 1,700 crore for FY13.