Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has reported a 17.25% growth in standalone net profit at Rs 1,686.21 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011.
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 net profit stood at Rs 1,438.10 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2009-10, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
During the quarter, net sales stood at Rs 15,078.39 crore, a growth of 12.73% compared with Rs 13,374.89 crore in the January-March quarter of FY10.
The company’s gross revenues from the engineering and construction segment grew by 12.85% to Rs 13,664.31 crore, while its electrical and electronics segment reported a meagre growth of 1.32% to Rs 1,001.39 crore.
However, for the full year 2010-11, the standalone net profit of the company fell by 9.54% to Rs 3,957.89 crore due to an 18.58% increase in its tax outgo to Rs 1,945.86 crore. During 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% to Rs 4,456.17 crore in the 2010-11 fiscal from Rs 5,450.74 crore in FY10.
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% in order inflow during the January-March quarter.
Giving its outlook for the current year, the company said that completion of several expansion projects is underway and it will strengthen the company’s position of pre-eminence in various business verticals.
However, it added that “intense competition and spiralling input costs may exert some pressure on the operating margin going forward.”
The company informed BSE that the board of directors have recommended a dividend of Rs 14.50 per share.
Meawhile, the scrip ended the session up by 5.92% to Rs 1,594.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange today.
