Better than expected - L&T

Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro has reported a better than expected growth of 31.6% year-on-year in its adjusted profit after tax of Rs 1,920 crore for the fourth quarter of FY12.

After including exceptional items of Rs 227 crore in Q4FY11, company's reported profit after tax rose 13.9% for the quarter ended March 2012. Exceptional items included sale of investment in an associate company and partial sale of a strategic investment.

Total income came in lower than expectations at Rs 18,461 crore, a growth of 21% as compared to Rs 15,261 crore during the same period. Revenues from its E&C division jumped 23.4% to Rs 16,709 crore from Rs 13,544 crore YoY.

The averagely expectation by analyst made net profit at Rs 1,691 crore and total income at Rs 18,843 crore.

However, company by reporting lower order inflow and margins disappointed the streets. EBITDA margins declined at 13.65% in the January-March quarter of 2012 as against 15.22% in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

EBITDA increased 7.7% to Rs 2,520.7 crore from Rs 2,341 crore year-on-year. 

, As per company, L&T received orders worth Rs 70,574 crore in the financial year 2011-12, which was quite lower than its prediction of Rs 80,000-84,000 crore due to deferred execution and lost orders

The latest information is that L&T has decided to pay a dividend of Rs 16.50 a share.