L&T trades firm as arm lowest bidder for HPCL Rajasthan Refinery contract

Shares of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) traded 1 per cent higher at Rs 1,296 on the BSE on Friday in an otherwise subdued market on report that the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, L&T Hydrocarbon (LTHE), is the lowest bidder for HPCL Rajasthan Refinery.

The stock of the construction & engineering company was trading close to its 52-week high level of Rs 1,384, touched on February 1, 2020. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.25 per cent at 46,767 points, at 12:20 pm.

LTHE has emerged as the lowest bidder for HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Ltd's two engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) packages, coming up at Barmer in Rajasthan, news agency IANS reported, quoting sources.

HRRL opened the financial bids submitted by the 2 bidders (Petrofac and L&T Heavy Engineering) for Petro FCC Package and 3 bidders (Tecnimont+JGC, Petrofac and LTHE) for DFCU Package in December 2020. The combined value for both the packages will be around Rs 13,000 crore. Petrofac's bid got disqualified for both the packages, report suggested.

LTHE provides integrated ‘design-to-build’ turnkey solutions for the hydrocarbon industry globally. The business executes projects for oil and gas extraction and processing, petroleum refining, chemicals and petrochemicals, fertilizers, cross-country pipelines and terminals. In-house capabilities range from front-end design through detailed engineering, procurement, fabrication, project management, construction and installation up to commissioning services.

Meanwhile, L&T’s management are hopeful that the second half (October-March) of FY2020-21 will herald better economic and business activity in terms of tendering, good liquidity and revival of labour and supply chains.

“We see prospects in the areas of Government buildings, data centres, healthcare infra, airports, metro railways, water projects including wastewater treatment and irrigation, hydel projects, expressways as well as onshore and offshore hydrocarbon projects. We are uncertain, however, of the timelines when these projects will take off,” A.M.Naik, Group Chairman, said in 2019-20 annual report.

Larsen & Toubro Limited