In case of L&T, its core engineering and construction (E&C) segment came under pressure in H1 FY16 as it witnessed 210 basis points decline year-on-year in its operating margins, despite a six per cent revenue growth. Factors such as under-recovery of overheads and cost over-run weighed on the segment’s operations. That apart, legacy issues impacted the performance of its hydrocarbon business, where revenues could remain under pressure given its dependence on the West Asia region where business has been impacted due to sharp contraction in crude prices.
As for BHEL, revenue growth and operating margins would be the key points the Street would watch out for in December quarter results. Revenues for the company dipped by three per cent y-o-y in Q2 FY16, resulting in operating profit plunging by 55 per cent, while the company ended the September 2015 quarter posting loss of Rs 205 crore. Profitability in Q2 FY 16 took a beating as the share of import content shot up significantly, with nearly 65 per cent of BHEL’s orders falling under the ‘super-critical’ category. Orders falling in this category (from state electricity boards or SEBs and NTPC), require BHEL to source certain critical components from its foreign collaborators such as Alstom and Siemens. While BHEL has indicated of possible renegotiation with clients in this segment, analysts believe that falling raw material cost and rupee depreciation could limit the room for margin expansion on these projects.
On the whole, analysts appear positive on the stock of L&T with 35 out of 51 analysts polled on Bloomberg since October 2015 recommending ‘buy’, while 29 out of 49 analysts have ‘sell’ recommendation on BHEL’s stock. Nomura in its report sums up that L&T’s order backlog is only ‘slow- moving’ or ‘slow to start’ rather than ‘non-moving’ as in the case of BHEL.