Larsen & Toubro (L&T), on Monday, reported a 14 per cent growth in net profit for the fourth quarter of 2011-12 at Rs.1,920 crore (Rs.1,686 crore) on 21 per cent higher revenue of Rs.18,461 crore (Rs.15,261 crore).
Although L&T's order book grew 11 per cent during the quarter to Rs.1,45,723 crore, order inflow dipped 30 per cent to Rs.21,159 crore.
Dividend
The company's board recommended a dividend of Rs.16.5 per share for 2011-12. The net profit grew 13 per cent to Rs.4,456 crore on a 21 per cent higher revenue of Rs.53,171 crore in the whole of 2011-12.
Addressing a press conference, R. Shankar Raman, Chief Financial Officer, said, “Notwithstanding a challenging year to deal with, our performance has been fairly satisfactory. We are looking forward to a challenging year ahead. The revenue growth guidance for the fiscal 2012-13 would be 15-20 per cent with a margin fluctuation of 50 basis points (bps).”
“The effort is to maintain 12-13 per cent margins and one should factor in a 50 bps volatility to indicate conditions in which we are now operating,” he said.
L&T's capex plans this year are similar to last fiscal at Rs.1,700 crore.
K. Venkataramanan, MD & CEO, said there was potential in the Indian hydrocarbon segment in deep water, upstream and in pipelines. “The fertilizer segment too holds promise provided the government's urea policy issues are sorted out. In downstream, prospects are flat as no major investments are expected in the next 2-3 years.”
A. M. Naik, Chairman, said it was aiming to increase presence in Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia this year and enter Indonesia, Iraq, Brazil and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries in 2013-14. International business at present contributes 18 per cent to turnover and L&T intends to raise it to 25 per cent.
“We will try much harder to go beyond 25 per cent to get over some immediate issues here,” Mr. Naik said.
