Larsen & Toubro Limited

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Larson & Toubro Limited Q1 FY24 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an option to be free to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. P Ramakrishnan, head investor relations from Larsen and Toubro Limited. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Nirav. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to all of you into the Q1 FI24 earnings call of Larsen and Toubro. The presentation summarizing the performance of Q1 FI24 was uploaded on the stock exchange and in our website, at around 6 PM today evening. As usual, instead of going through the entire presentation, I will take you through the key highlights for the quarter in the next 30 minutes or so, and post that, we will take Q&A. Before I start, the usual disclaimer, the presentation that we have uploaded on the Stock Exchange and our website today, including the discussions that we will have in this call, contains or may contain certain forward-looking statement concerning L&T group's business prospects and profitability, which are subject to several risks and uncertainties, and the actual results could materially differ from those in such forward-looking statements. India has remained an oasis of stability despite the continuing global macroeconomic volatility. The domestic activity in Q1FI24 remained resilient as reflected by the various high frequency economic indicators. The purchasing managers index or the PMIs that we call for both manufacturing and services is also indicating a sustained expansion. The growth momentum is likely to continue on a stable ready crop production expected normal monsoon, continued buoyancy in services and stable inflation with a softening bias. Although I did mention a normal monsoon, let me clarify that the distribution of rainfall is as important as the total volume and we will be monitoring these developments closely. Secondly, given the healthy balance sheets of banks and corporates, supply chain normalization and declining uncertainty, conditions are favorable for a continued capex cycle in sectors like infrastructure, power, that includes renewables, petrochemicals and defense in the near to medium term. When we look outside India, it is our view that although the global economy is turning the corner, but it does face a long road ahead in order to attain stable and sustainable growth. It is positive to see China come back, energy prices being stable, headline inflation on the reverse in many developed economies, and supply chain normalization. The Middle East, which is our next big geography for our projects business, is stable. We continue to see plenty of opportunities revolving around oil and gas, core industrialization, and energy transition initiatives in this part of the world. Before I get into the details of the financial performance parameters, I would like to share a few important highlights of the quarter. The board of directors of the company has approved a proposal to buy back through the tender equity, tender route equity shares of the company for an aggregate amount not exceeding 10,000 crores. The 10,000 crores excludes the tax on buyback. The proposal is subject to approval of the shareholders. Further, the board has also approved a special dividend of Rs. 6 per equity share. Secondly, our defence engineering business has signed a teaming agreement with Navantia Spain for the purpose of submission of a techno-commercial bid for the Indian Navy's prestigious P-75I submarine program.

Thirdly, our daily ridership