Improved operating margins saw Larsen & Toubro (L&T) report a 15 per cent growth in its net profit for the first quarter of 2010-11 at Rs. 666 crore against Rs. 578 crore in the year-ago period. Its net profit in the corresponding quarter last year was Rs. 1,598 crore which included Rs. 1,020 crore realised from the sale of its long-term investment in UltraTech Cement. Excluding this figure, the profit from normal operations amounted to Rs. 578 crore. The operating margin was 12.9 per cent (11.3 per cent).
Sales were up 6.5 per cent at Rs. 7,913 crore against Rs. 7,431 crore. It received orders worth Rs. 15,626 crore (Rs. 9,571 crore), a growth of 63 per cent. The order book stood at Rs. 107,816 crore as at June 30, 2010. The operating profit was up 21 per cent at Rs. 892.90 crore against Rs. 736.20 crore.
The Engineering & Construction (E&C) segment accounted for 83 per cent of sales and is at an initial stage of execution in many large-value projects.
Shankar Raman, Senior Vice-President, Finance & Legal, L&T, said, “The segment will see increased sales in the second-half of the year when project execution will have advanced to a larger extent.”
