BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro Ltd reported a bigger-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday as project executions rose amid robust order inflow.
L&T’s consolidated net profit rose 10.1% to 39.87 billion rupees ($487.5 million) in the quarter ended March 31 from a year earlier.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 39.23 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
L&T’s order inflow, or the total value of orders placed with the company, rose 19% from last year.
Its consolidated order book, the value of projects undertaken, stood at 4 trillion rupees on March 31 compared to 3.58 trillion rupees a year ago.
The company’s infrastructure projects, its largest segment, had an order book of 2.85 trillion rupees with international orders constituting 22%, compared to 2.61 trillion rupees last year.
Production-linked incentives, improved business confidence and buoyant demand conditions will continue to facilitate the positive environment, the company said in a statement.
L&T’s results are often viewed as an indication of capital expenditure in the Indian economy due to the diverse nature and scale of projects the company undertakes.
The Mumbai-based company’s revenue from operations rose 10.4% to 538.35 billion rupees from a year earlier.
The company also said A.M. Naik would step down as non-executive chairman, while S.N Subrahmanyan has been re-designated as chairman and managing director.
L&T’s shares closed 0.4% lower ahead of its results.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen Soreng)
