India's Larsen & Toubro tops Q2 profit estimates on growth in infra projects

BENGALURU, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Indias Larsen & Toubro (L&T)

Consolidated net profit after tax rose 44.6% to 32.23 billion rupees ($387.08 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30, beating analysts average estimate of 29.19 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.

The infrastructure companys order inflows jumped 72%, benefitting from an upbeat capital expenditure (capex) environment that took its consolidated order book up to 4.51 trillion rupees.

A federal capex push ahead of the 2024 elections and buoyant private consumption has been driving growth at the Mumbai-based company, L&T earlier said in its latest annual report.

Infrastructure projects, its biggest segment, logged orders worth 279.90 billion rupees, with international orders contributing 24%.

The company said it is investing 8.3 billion rupees to set up a unit for semiconductor chip design and product ownership.

Due to the variety and scale of orders under its portfolio, L&Ts results are often seen as a bellwether for capital expenditure in the Indian economy.

Its revenue from operations rose more than 19% to 510.24 billion rupees, with international revenues contributing about 43%.

“Investment activity is benefiting from continuing public sector capex with growth being witnessed in steel consumption, cement production as well as in imports and production of capital goods,\” the company said in a statement.

It added that it did not see any impact on order execution and remained optimistic about fresh projects, even as the recent Middle East conflict raised concerns about the potential increase in crude prices.

Shares of L&T closed flat ahead of results, while the benchmark Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) closed down 0.32%.

($1 = 83.2643 Indian rupees)