Monday, 23 January 2012 at 15:29, Bloomberg
Larsen aims to boost orders in hydrocarbon and infrastructure sectors in Middle East and South East Asia. (REUTERS)
Larsen & Toubro Ltd, India’s biggest builder of power networks and airports, posted a better- than-expected profit in the third quarter as it completed projects faster and curbed costs to boost margins.
Net income rose 18 per cent to 9.92 billion rupees ($197 million) in the three months ended December 31 compared with 8.41bn rupees a year earlier, the company said in a statement today. That beat the 8.69bn-rupee median of 23 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Larsen aims to boost orders in the hydrocarbon and infrastructure sectors in the Middle East and South East Asian countries, the company said in the statement. New contracts in the quarter gained 28 per cent to 171bn rupees.
“We’re going to see improvement in infrastructure starting with softening of interest rates,” said Amit Srivastava, a Mumbai-based analyst at Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities. “The government is also now serious and is sitting across the table with industry to address their problems.”
Larsen shares gained as much as 1.8 per cent to 1,297 rupees in Mumbai, after earlier falling as much as 3.8 per cent. The stock slumped 50 per cent in 2011.
Sales in the quarter rose 23 per cent to 139.9bn rupees, Larsen said. Total order book reached 1.46 trillion rupees as of December 31, it said.
Your comments