Larsen & Toubro (L&T) will set up a joint venture each in Saudi Arabia and Qatar by end-June to enter the infrastructure space there, its chairman & managing director A.M. Naik said. “We are currently getting out of issues with our current partner in Qatar and will set up a new venture by the end of next month,” he added. L&T, India's largest engineering & construction conglomerate, has a considerable presence in these countries in the hydrocarbon space through its engineering & construction (E&C) division, but is not present in the infrastructure business. Asked if the company was worried about the slowdown in the Middle East, Naik said “Dubai has definitely come to a grinding halt, but Abu Dhabi and several other places in the region are doing well.” Naik said the company is also setting up base in Libya to explore opportunities there and in Algeria and Egypt. “But it will be a year before we plunge into operations there,” said Naik. He added that L&T is also opening an office in South Africa to look at other regions in Africa such as Angola. L&T is also setting up a sales & marketing office in Brussels for its equipment business, he said. L&T's overseas business contributes 18-19 percent to its top line. “But we have always looked at a domestic-overseas mix of 75:25, which we will achieve in a year,” Naik said. Overseas orders contributed nearly 14.5 percent to E&C's order inflow of Rs45,418 crore during the last fiscal. L&T's fresh order intake last fiscal grew 23 percent to Rs 51,621 crore, as against a 30 percent growth registered in the previous year. “During the last six months there has not been much progress on the government projects front because of the slowdown and the elections, but with a stable government in place, things will turn around after July-August,” Naik added.
