New Delhi/Mumbai: Conglomerate Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) reported a 10 percent rise in first-quarter revenue on Monday, reflecting a big increase in orders from international customers.
Revenue came in at 191.23 billion rupees ($3.2 billion) for the three months ended June 30, 10 percent higher than the same period last year and compared with a 114.99 billion mean estimate by analysts, data from Thomson Reuters showed.
L&T makes transport and military equipment and has been expanding overseas to offset weak demand at home.
International orders doubled and now constitute 44 percent of total new orders, the company said, while the new order book across its business is up 11 percent on the same period last year, helped by major infrastructure, hydrocarbon and heavy engineering orders.
"The company weathered (the) domestic slowdown by strengthening its international presence in the select overseas markets," L&T said in a statement.
Consolidated recurring profit after tax came in at 7.71 billion rupees, up 68 percent from last year, L&T said.
Executive Chairman A.M. Naik said in May he saw improvement in the business outlook after the election of a new government raised the possibility of the authorities approving a backlog of projects that has plagued the infrastructure industry.
But the prospect of a revival in domestic demand is yet to encourage infrastructure companies such as L&T to commit to new capital expenditure - central to any sustained economic recovery - because of spare production capacity, analysts said.
L&T shares have gained around 55 percent this year. They closed down 1 percent before the earnings announcement, compared with a 0.5 percent fall in the benchmark BSE Sensex.
