MUMBAI, Aug 1: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has recorded a 23 per cent increase in sales for the first three months of the current financial year despite an adverse business environment, company director SS Marathe said at the 52nd annual general meeting here on Friday.

L&T has booked orders worth Rs 1,538 crore during the first quarter. These include a Rs 369 crore contract to construct and operate a combined cycle co-generation power plant with Haldia Petrochemicals on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis, Marathe said. For this a separate company, HPL Cogeneration, has been formed where L&T will invest Rs 86.6 crore for a 74 per cent stake.

Other orders bagged during the current financial year are a Rs 96 crore contract to construct a causeway, another one to supply equipment for Reliance Petroleum's Jamnagar refinery, and a Rs 48 crore civil and structural contract for Daelim Engineering in Kerala.

Marathe said L&T was bidding for several projects on BOO and BOOT (build-own-operate-transfer) basis. He added that another other company, Narmada Infrastructure Construction Enterprise, had been formed to convert a two-lane bridge into a four-lane one across the Narmada in Gujarat.

L&T will invest Rs 30 crore as equity for a 60 per cent stake, he said. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 130 crore. L&T-Samsung Telecom Ltd, a joint venture with Samsung of South Korea, will be located in Mysore, Marathe said.

He reiterated that the company had no intentions of dropping its Orissa steel project. L&T wants to be involved in it in its capacity as an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor. At present, the exercise of locating a `suitable' international steelmaker as partner was on, he said. L&T's cement production at 15.72 lakh tonnes during the first quarter is a 25 per cent increase over last year's level.

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