NEW DELHI/BENGALURU, Oct 29 (Reuters) - India's Larsen & Toubro said on Wednesday it was well placed to surpass its 10% annual order growth forecast, after its second-quarter profit rose on stronger execution of overseas orders and consistent order inflows.
L&T, seen as a bellwether for India's infrastructure sector, has been trying to win more overseas orders to hedge risks from a relatively weaker domestic market.
"We continue to witness higher capex spends, in both our primary geographies of India and the Middle East, and remain fairly optimistic about order prospects," Chairman and Managing Director S N Subrahmanyan said.
"We continue to witness higher capex spends, in both our primary geographies of India and the Middle East, and remain fairly optimistic about order prospects," Chairman and Managing Director S N Subrahmanyan said.
However, a 10.4% rise in total expenses - mostly led by sub-contracting charges - squeezed margins. L&T's core profit margins contracted to 10% from 10.3% a year earlier.
L&T also said it is considering to expand its coal Boiler-Turbine-Generator making capacity beyond 6 gigawatts (GW) to capitalise on high demand. Its present capacity is 4 GW and had previously planned to expand it to around 5-6 GW.
($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Manvi Pant and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru, and Sethuraman NR in New Delhi, Editing by Sonia Cheema, Janane Venkatraman and Krishna Chandra Eluri
Source: Reuters