Larsen and Toubro FY 08 Performance - by Narasimhan
COMPANY HISTORY
Larsen and Toubro (L & T) one of the India’s largest engineering conglomerate, was founded in the year 1938 by two Danish engineers, Henning Holck-Larsen and Soren Kristian Toubro at Mumbai. The company first carried on the business of importing machineries from Europe, and then rapidly took on engineering and construction assignments of increasing sophistication. L&T is now make its mark in the areas of Construction, hydraulic equipment, electric and electronic power services, fertilizer projects, medical electronics and information technology. It generates almost 85% of its revenue from the construction business. L & T’s engineering and construction, implements turnkey projects in major core and infrastructure sectors of Indian industry. The company is executing large scale Turnkey projects with help accessing technical Know-how from many global companies. The company has integrated its strengths in process technology, basic and detailed engineering, equipment fabrication, procurement, project management, erection, construction and commissioning, to offer single-point responsibility against stringent delivery schedules.
- L & T’s Electrical and Electronics segment comprises manufacture and sale of low-voltage switchgear and control gear, custom-built switchboards, petroleum dispensing pumps and systems, electronic energy meters/protection systems, control and automation products and medical equipments. Medical equipments and systems manufactured by L & T include advanced ultra sound scanners and patient monitoring systems.
- The company also made its mark in the IT sector, with instituting L & T InfoTech ltd., a 100% subsidiary of L & T. The company offers comprehensive, end- end software solutions and services with a focus on manufacturing, BFSI and communication and embedded systems.
- The Machinery and Industrial products segment comprises manufacture and sale of industrial equipment and machinery, marketing of industrial valves, construction equipment and welding/ industrial products. It also markets hydraulic excavators, aggregate crushers, vibratory compactors etc.
Latest Developments
- The company recently entered in to a joint venture agreement with the Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation for the construction of an integrated shipyard and port facility near Chennai.
- In joint venture with Yousuf Bin Ahamad Group of Saudi Arabia the L&T Electrical group opened Switch Board manufacturing facility at Saudi Arabia
- The company bagged a Rs.1557 crore order for supply of steam turbine generator to Sri Damodharam sanjeevaiah Thermal power Station at Krishnapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
- In 2009-10 the company is planning for issuing Initial Public offer of its group companies.
FINANCIALS
The company recently announced its final quarter results recently. The Net Profit of the company was at Rs.9667.6 Million against the net profit of Rs.7007 Million for the same period last year. Sales for this quarter were up at Rs.85775.5 Million from Rs.64618 Million. The Operating profit for this quarter stood at Rs.11181.3 Million versus operating profit of Rs.6902.9 million in the last quarter ended December 2007.Revenues from international operations constituted 16.4 % of gross revenues.
| Rs Millions | Mar ' 08 | Dec ' 07 | Sep ' 07 | Jun ' 07 | Mar ' 07 |
| Sales | 85775.5 | 64618 | 54999.4 | 45738.7 | 63657.4 |
| Operating profit | 11181.3 | 6902.9 | 5863.1 | 4230.5 | 8098.4 |
| Interest | 498.6 | 438.4 | 132.4 | 157.2 | 63.3 |
| Gross profit | 13173.2 | 7473.2 | 5964 | 6188 | 10076.5 |
| Depreciation | 681.7 | 527 | 483.2 | 424.1 | 698.1 |
| Net profit / loss | 9667.6 | 4817.9 | 3480.2 | 3768.5 | 7007.7 |
| Equity capital | 584.7 | 583.7 | 573.6 | 567.6 | 566.5 |
| EPS (Rs) | 33.07 | 16.51 | 12.13 | 13.28 | 24.74 |
| OPM (%) | 13.04% | 10.68% | 10.66% | 9.25% | 12.72% |
| GPM (%) | 15.36% | 11.57% | 10.84% | 13.53% | 15.83% |
| NPM (%) | 11.27% | 7.46% | 6.33% | 8.24% | 11.01% |
Remarkable feature of FY 08 operations is the ease with which the company has been steady with the margins despite higher input costs. Higher mobilization of resources in the equity market by number of companies and consequent upswing in project expenditure have made this possible. Strategic sale of non core operations especially cement mixing activities have given the company sufficient liquidity and higher realizations.
The comparative performance of large quoted diversified companies are given below
| Rs Millions | Larsen | Reliance | Grasim | Century | Voltas |
| Sales Turnover | 84668.7 | 372860 | 27423.5 | 9926.9 | 8421.1 |
| Other Income | 2490.5 | 2890 | 1187.4 | 205.7 | 144.7 |
| Total Income | 87159.2 | 375750 | 28610.9 | 10132.6 | 8565.8 |
| Total Expenses | 73487.4 | 312680 | 20800.3 | 8773.1 | 7836.7 |
| Operating Profit | 11181.3 | 60180 | 6623.2 | 1153.8 | 584.4 |
| Gross Profit | 13671.8 | 63070 | 7810.6 | 1359.5 | 729.1 |
| Interest | 498.6 | 2720 | 271.6 | 0 | 5.4 |
| PBDT | 14045.5 | 60350 | 9798.5 | 783 | 836.8 |
| Depreciation | 681.7 | 13800 | 942.4 | 500.1 | 40.2 |
| PBT | 13363.8 | 46550 | 8856.1 | 282.9 | 796.6 |
| Tax | 3696.2 | 7430 | 2182.4 | 0 | 242.5 |
| Net Profit | 9667.6 | 39120 | 6673.7 | 162 | 554.1 |
| Equity | 584.7 | 14540 | 916.9 | 930.4 | 330.7 |
| OPM | 13.21% | 16.14% | 24.15% | 11.62% | 6.94% |
| NPM | 11.09% | 10.41% | 23.33% | 1.60% | 6.47% |
The company is in the second place when compared to its major rivals. The orders received by the company during the year increased by over 37%. The engineering division of the company is now having orders worth more than Rs.1000 crore and the orders from International customers for its engineering and construction business stands at Rs.8210 crore. The company is planning to expand its capacity in the power sector and coal mining. To evade the soaring economic conditions, rising inflation pressures the company is planning to expand its business abroad.
As the company is making investments in the metal sectors in a long term perspective it is immune to the inflation hike and the impact of increase in the interest rates. The company is now is trading at the level of 2200-2500.This week the stock hit the New Year low at 2140. The stock has been in a major decline since January 08. As the increasing inflation and interest will prove a dampener for the stock market and affect savings of people it is preferable to avoid this stock till IPO’s become reliable source to fund projects.