Addressing a news conference here today, A M Naik, the newly appointed managing director and CEO of L&T, said that the company has performed well despite difficult circumstances like lack of fresh investments, excess capacity, political uncertainty and delays in finalising project proposals.

``Profitability was adversely affected by the continued pressure on cement prices as well as higher depreciation and interest charges on account of the commissioning of cement plants in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh,'' he added.

The turnover of the company was Rs 7,291 crore which shows an increase of 28.4 per cent over Rs 5,676.77 crore recorded in previous fiscal. The company sold off its shippingdivision for Rs 81 crore which has been included in the PBT of the company as extraordinary profit for the year.

Naik said that the company has set up five task forces to identify its main focus area in the next millennium. ``Under our Vision 2005 plan, we are planning to focus on our core businesses while the rest will be hived off as separate subsidiary,'' he said.

L&T board would take a decision after the task force, deputed to draw up a comprehensive programme of restructuring, submit its report in September. For the fiscal 2000, the company expects its turnover to grow to Rs 8,500 crore. In the fiscal 1999, the company recorded a healthy order book of Rs 7290 crore, marking an increase 9 per cent over the previous year. ``We are targetting our order book to grow to Rs 10,000 crore in the current fiscal,'' Naik said.