L&T relies on overseas construction projects

India’s largest engineering and construction group Larsen and Toubro will look overseas to offset a weak economy and project bottlenecks at home that led to a bigger-than-expected profit drop. India’s economy slowed to 4.5 per cent in the December quarter, far off the near double-digit growth the leaders of the emerging Asian giant would like, as bureaucracy and a lack of financially viable projects have hit infrastructure building.

However, L&T, whose interests span shipbuilding to railways, forecast net sales for the current fiscal year would rise by as much as 17 per cent and new orders would swell by about a fifth, thanks to expansion in the Middle East and Africa.

The company's Executive Chairman AM Naik said that he would be very cautious about India growth and he would not want to give a very optimistic view, he said. L&T has put a “tremendous amount” of effort into diversifying and not being an “only-India organisation,” he added.