Larsen & Toubro, India's largest engineering and construction group, said its consolidated net profit rose 33% to 52.02 billion rupees in the three months to Sept. 30, from 39.26 billion rupees a year earlier, as revenue grew 16% to 787.5 billion rupees and new orders hit a quarterly record.

The company won 1.48 trillion rupees of contracts in the quarter, up 28% from the year before, and nearly two-thirds of that came from outside India. For investors across Asia, the numbers show how heavily L&T now leans on energy projects in the Middle East and on the global power build-out, rather than on India's own public works program alone.

Larsen & Toubro's order book reaches a record

International orders totaled 923.75 billion rupees, or 63% of the quarter's inflow, the company reported on Oct. 27. Big wins came in offshore and onshore hydrocarbons, power transmission and distribution, airports and public spaces, and the group's CarbonLite low-emissions business, according to a Press Trust of India report carried by Deccan Chronicle.

That pushed the order book to 8.54 trillion rupees at the end of September, up 15% from March, Business Today reported. Overseas work makes up 54% of the backlog. In the first half of the fiscal year, inflows rose 22% to 2.56 trillion rupees.

Chairman and Managing Director S.N. Subrahmanyan said the company had posted “yet another record quarterly order inflow,” in the results statement, and said the backlog gives L&T revenue visibility for several years.

The conventional energy unit, which builds oil and gas facilities, did most of the lifting. Its order inflow more than doubled to 784.13 billion rupees, Angel One reported. The segment's revenue rose 29% to 172.85 billion rupees.

Revenue climbs but margins narrow

Growth was broad. Revenue from the green energy business, which covers solar and offshore wind projects, jumped 43% to 114.93 billion rupees. Manufacturing and products rose 34% to 44.8 billion rupees. Technology, platforms and services grew 11% to 148.26 billion rupees, according to Angel One.

The core infrastructure and utilities segment, still the largest by revenue, grew a slower 6% to 251.33 billion rupees. International revenue was 458.7 billion rupees, or 58% of the total.

Profitability at the operating level did not keep pace. EBITDA was almost unchanged at 68.45 billion rupees, compared with 68.06 billion rupees a year earlier, and the EBITDA margin fell to 8.7% from 10%, according to Free Press Journal and Angel One. Angel One attributed the decline to thinner margins across the portfolio and a shift in the revenue mix.

The headline profit gain came below the operating line. Total income, which includes other income on top of operating revenue, was 810.56 billion rupees against 693.68 billion rupees a year earlier, Free Press Journal reported. Subtracting operating revenue from those totals gives other income of about 23 billion rupees, up from roughly 14 billion rupees, by Capital Times calculation. None of the reports reviewed gave a breakdown of what drove the jump in net profit. Basic earnings per share rose to 37.81 rupees from 28.54 rupees.

For the first half, revenue rose 11% to 1.47 trillion rupees and net profit rose 24% to 93.25 billion rupees. Compared with the April-June quarter, when L&T earned 41.23 billion rupees, net profit rose 26%, Free Press Journal reported. Orders received a year earlier had totaled 1.16 trillion rupees, according to Angel One.

Shares rise as investors weigh West Asia risk

Investors focused on the order pipeline. L&T shares traded 4.3% higher at 3,821.90 rupees on the morning of Oct. 28, the first session after the results, according to Angel One. The gain came in a month when foreign investors pulled 348 billion rupees from Indian stocks even as the Nifty rose.

The company described the global outlook as one of guarded optimism, pointing to demand for AI data centers, infrastructure, the energy transition and industrial investment, according to the PTI report. It also flagged West Asia as a source of downside risk. That matters for a group that now books most of its new contracts abroad.

The margin question will follow L&T into the second half. Revenue growth of 16% with flat EBITDA means the group is converting its record backlog into sales at lower returns. The next test comes with results for October through December, when investors will see whether the 8.54 trillion-rupee backlog starts to lift the 8.7% margin.