L&T Aiming at More Revenues Overseas

L&T aiming or more revenues overseasIndia’s leading construction company, Larsen and Toubro is aiming to generate more revenues from abroad in order to compensate for a slowdown in the Indian economy, according to the firm's chief financial officer, R. Shankar Raman.

The company had earlier reduced its order growth guidance for the current financial year due to concerns over project deferrals and low investor appetite, due to high interest rates in India. The company is now planning to increase its revenue share from overseas projects to 15-20% from 10-12%, according to Mr. Raman.

The company has already announced $1.1 billion worth of new contracts in foreign markets since August. Larsen and Toubro has a market capitalization of $15 billion and its gets about 80% of its revenue from the domestic market. The company has reduced its growth guidance for the current fiscal year by a third to 5% last month.

"The opportunity spectrum around this time last year was coming around to USD 100 billion. We find that half of those USD 100 billion has got deferred," said Shankar Raman.

The country’s government has estimated that the country needs $1 trillion on upgrading its creaking power plants, railways and ports in the five years to 2017. About half of the value is expected to come from the private sector however; there has been a slowdown in investment.