L&T market cap to touch Rs 3 lakh crore in 5 years, says chairman AM Naik

L&T market cap to touch Rs 3 lakh crore in 5 years, says chairman AM Naik

Larsen & Toubro’s standalone market capitalisation will touch Rs 3 lakh crore and its revenue will reach Rs 2 lakh crore in five years as strategic initiatives like L&T NxT have helped in making giant strides, group chairman A M Naik said. The recently launched L&T-NxT initiative is a technology platform that focuses on artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, geospatial solutions as well as cybersecurity.

The $20-billion diversified L&T Group has a market cap of about Rs 2.5 lakh crore at present. “Five years from now, I expect L&T standalone market cap to be in the range of Rs 3 lakh crore from the present of about Rs 2 lakh crore… L&T’s revenue will then touch Rs 2 lakh crore from the present about Rs 1.4 lakh crore,” Naik told PTI in an exclusive interview.

According to him, when he took over as L&T chief executive officer, the combined market cap was around Rsc 2,000 crore and it had now surged to Rs 2.5 lakh crore. He joined L&T in 1965 as a junior engineer and rose to the positions of CEO and managing director in 1999 and chairman in 2003. In 2017, he stepped aside from executive responsibilities and took over as group chairman. “It has grown so much. The sales were about Rs 5,000 crore (when he took over) and today it is Rs 1.4 lakh crore.” “I would say 88% of today’s L&T has been created by me from a clean slate. What we inherited, no longer exist today and in a year or two, it (share of the inherited businesses) will come down from 12% to 2-3%. Remaining, we would have closed or sold,” he said.