Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on Wednesday registered a 45 per cent decline in consolidated net profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 1,410 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2020 on account of lower revenue, higher credit provisions in the financial services business and disruption of the metro service. The company had posted consolidated net profit of Rs 2,552 crore during the corresponding quarter last year, L&T said in a filing to the BSE.
On the sequential basis, the profit jumped nearly 4 times from Rs 360.60 crore in April-June quarter of the current fiscal, reflecting pickup in the business momentum.
The company recorded consolidated gross revenues of Rs 31,035 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2020, from Rs 35,328.45 crore in the year ago period, declining by 12 per cent YoY due to the lingering impact of the pandemic during the quarter under review.
As of September 30, 2020, the consolidated order book of the group stood at Rs 298,856 crore with international order book constituting 24 per cent of the total order book.
The company bagged orders worth Rs 28,039 crore at the group level during the quarter under review, registering a sequential improvement of 19 per cent over previous quarter, but a decline of 42 per cent on YoY, on account of deferment of award decisions largely caused by the pandemic. International orders during the quarter constituted 36 per cent of the total order Inflow.
On future outlook, the company said that if the current moderation in new COVID cases is sustained, and with increased efforts for launch of effective vaccines, recovery could gather pace and yield a possible GDP upgrade over the next year or two. On the global front, the outlook on economic recovery remains uncertain with resurgence of COVID in parts of Europe, US policy directions dependent on outcome of Presidential elections and protectionist policies being adopted by various countries within an increasingly bipolar world order.
L&T's board also approved Special Dividend of Rs 18 per equity share i.e. 900 per cent on face value of Rs 2 each, for the financial year 2020-21. The record date for the purpose of payment of dividend is November 5, 2020.
Ahead of Q2 results, share price of L&T ended Wednesday's trade at Rs 983.65, up 0.12 per cent, against the previous closing at Rs 982.45, on the BSE.