Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on January 30 reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,553 crore for the December quarter of the financial year 2022-23, up 24 percent from the year-ago period, on better execution of infrastructure projects and continued growth in the IT&TS portfolio.
The revenue from operations zoomed to Rs 46,390 crore, 17 percent higher from the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, the company said in an exchange filing.
The numbers were better than expected. According to a brokerage poll conducted by Moneycontrol, consolidated revenue for the third quarter of FY23 was seen rising 5.2 percent sequentially and 13.7 percent annually to Rs 44,972.85 crore.
The company's net profit was estimated to go up 13.7 percent on-quarter and 23.4 percent on-year to Rs 2,535 crore in the October-December period.
Infra, IT boost
The strong performance was aided by improved execution in the infrastructure projects segment and continued growth momentum in the information technology and technology services (IT&TS) portfolio, the company said.
International revenue at Rs 17,317 crore constituted 37 percent of the total revenue, the company added.
At the group level, L&T received orders worth Rs 60,710 crore during the quarter, registering a growth of 21 percent over the year-ago period. The consolidated order book stood at Rs 3.86 lakh crore at the end of the December quarter.
Outlook
"Major private capex investments are likely in energy transformation, emerging tech, healthcare, logistics, industrial parks, data centres, etc. which augurs well for the EPC and construction business," the company said.
"We possesses the necessary capability and flexibility to continuously rebalance approach and strategy in order to benefit from the dynamic business environment," it added.
Infrastructure projects segment
The segment saw order inflows of Rs 32,530 crore during the quarter, a growth of 28 percent YoY. The Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) margin came in at 7 percent against 7.1 percent in the year-ago period.
Order book stood at Rs 2.78 lakh crore as on December 31, 2022.
Energy projects segment
It secured orders worth Rs 9,051 crore during the quarter, up 12 percent YoY. The segment order book was Rs 72,000 crore as on December end, with the international order book constituting 50 percent.
EBITDA margin of the segment improved to 8.7 percent from 8.3 percent.
Hi-Tech manufacturing segment
The segment secured orders worth Rs 1,931 crore during the quarter, a decline of 36 percent YoY. This was largely due to subdued ordering in the defence engineering business, the company said.
The order book stood at Rs 19,869 crore, while EBITDA margin fell to 17.5 percent from 19.9 percent.
IT & Technology Services (IT&TS) segment
L&T Infotech Limited and Mindtree Limited successfully completed their merger and started operating as a merged entity during the quarter.
The segment recorded customer revenue of Rs 10,517 crore, up 25 percent YoY. The EBITDA margin for the segment was at 19.2 percent as compared to 23.6 percent in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
"It was impacted mainly due to one-time merger integration expenses in LTIMindree," the company said.
