Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on Thursday reported a 17.25 per cent growth in standalone net profit at Rs.1,686.21 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011, against Rs.1,438.10 crore in the year-ago period. However, the net profit could have been flat had there not been an exceptional gain of Rs.226.77 crore achieved out of the sale of its investment in an associate company.
The board has recommended a dividend of Rs.14.50 per share of Rs.2 each for 2010-11.
During the quarter, net sales stood at Rs.15,078.39 crore against Rs.13,374.89 crore, a growth of 12.73 per cent.
Gross revenues from the engineering and construction segment grew by 12.85 per cent to Rs.13,664.31 crore, while its electrical and electronics segment reported a meagre growth of 1.32 per cent at Rs.1,001.39 crore.
However, for the whole of 2010-11, the standalone net profit fell by 9.54 per cent to Rs.3,957.89 crore due to an 18.58 per cent increase in tax outgo to Rs.1,945.86 crore. In 2009-10, the company had posted a standalone net profit of Rs.4,375.52 crore.
On a consolidated basis, the net profit went down by 18.24 per cent to Rs.4,456.17 crore in 2010-11 from Rs.5,450.74 crore in 2009-10.
In a separate statement, the company said that its order book amounted to Rs.1,30,217 crore as of March 31, 2011, due to an increase of about 27 per cent in order inflow during the January-March quarter.
Outlook
Giving its outlook for the current year, the company said that completion of several expansion projects was under way and it would strengthen the company's position of pre-eminence in various business verticals.
However, it added that “intense competition and spiralling input costs might exert some pressure on the operating margin going forward”.
