L&T reported a 5% rise in consolidated net profit for the third quarter ended December 31 to ₹2,467 crore on account of higher profit from the information technology and technology services (IT & TS) segment and sale of commercial property by its realty division.
The PAT also included gains on divestment of ₹209 crore from discontinued operations.
“The gain of divestment is towards further adjustments accrued against the sale of the electrical and automation business to Schneider Electric SE in the previous quarter and sale of the U.K.-based marine control and automation systems subsidiary to Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG,” L&T said.
Gross revenue dropped 2% to ₹35,596 crore. “It was a quarter of turnaround for the whole industry,” said R. Shankar Raman, whole time director and CFO.
Significant orders
“It is a blockbuster quarter for the company in terms of order book. We have significant order inflow this quarter,” he added.
However, he said COVID-19-related restrictions continued to have an impact on project-site execution.
The consolidated order book of the group stood at a record ₹3,31,061 crore at December 31, registering a growth of 9% over the March 2020 level.
The company’s Infrastructure segment, its biggest one, secured orders of ₹ 45,574 crore, during the quarter, up 80% y-o-y. The Power segment did not secure any major order. The Heavy Engineering segment secured orders at ₹ 998 crore, almost a 100% growth on y-o-y The Defence Engineering segment received orders worth ₹ 705 crore.
The Hydrocarbon segment secured orders valued at ₹ 12,820 crore. International orders constituted 4% of the total order inflow. The company’s IT & Technology Services (IT&TS) segment comprising L&T Infotech, L&T Technology Services and Mindtree achieved customer revenue of ₹ 6,505 crore registering y-o-y growth of 7%, led by L&T Infotech.
Overseas sales constituted 93% of the total customer revenue of the segment for the quarter. Financial Services segment recorded income from operations at ₹ 3,401 crore, registering a y-o-y decline of 4%.
“We are hopeful of maintaining the momentum and are expecting a good Q4. Now, it is a problem of plenty,” said S.N. Subrahmanyan, CEO & MD, L&T.
Stating that the price rise in cement and steel was alarming, he said, “The price rise is not warranted and not justified in the current economic scenario. Hope rationality prevails,” he added.
