L&T's list of booked work is now its biggest ever, and most new orders come from abroad
India's best known builder made 33% more profit in July to September 2026, and 63% of the new orders it won came from outside India.
Picture a to-do list so long that finishing it would take years. Larsen & Toubro, better known as L&T, now has one worth about eight and a half lakh crore rupees. On Tuesday, 27 October 2026, the company said this is the biggest such list in its history. In the same three months, July to September, its profit jumped 33% to Rs 5,202 crore.
And here is the twist. Most of the new work did not come from India. It came from other countries.
First, who is L&T?
L&T is the company behind many of the big things you see being built in India: metro lines, airports, power plants, oil and gas platforms, factories and tall towers. The company began in 1938 in Bombay (now Mumbai) by two Danish engineers, Henning Holck-Larsen and Soren Kristian Toubro. The company is still based in Mumbai. Its chairman and managing director is S N Subrahmanyan.
Mint, carrying a Reuters report, calls L&T a barometer for India's infrastructure sector. A barometer measures the weather. So when L&T does well, it tells people how much building is going on.
What is an "order book"?
Think of a tailor in your area before the wedding season. Families come in and book suits and lehengas. The tailor writes each one in a notebook. He has not finished them yet, but he knows the work is coming, and he knows roughly how much money it will bring.
That notebook is an order book. For L&T, every signed contract to build a bridge, a plant or a metro line goes into the book. As the work gets done, the money slowly turns into revenue (the money a company earns from its work).
On 30 September 2026, L&T's order book stood at about eight and a half lakh crore rupees, up 15% from March 2026. Mr Subrahmanyan said the "highest ever order book" gives the company "multi-year revenue visibility". In simple words: the company can see years of work ahead.
How much new work did L&T win?
In July to September, L&T won new orders worth Rs 1,47,665 crore, 28% more than a year earlier. The company called this a record for one quarter (a quarter is three months of a year).
Of this, orders from outside India were worth Rs 92,375 crore. That is 63% of all new orders. Orders from India made up the remaining Rs 55,290 crore.
Much of the big work came from oil and gas. L&T's conventional energy business won orders worth Rs 78,413 crore, about double the figure a year ago, led by offshore and onshore hydrocarbon projects (oil and gas plants on land and at sea). Other big orders came from airports, public spaces and power lines.
Why does work abroad matter so much?
Think of a cricket team that only wins at home. One bad home season and the team is in trouble. A team that also wins away series is much safer.
L&T works the same way. This quarter, orders for its infrastructure business, which builds roads, buildings and similar projects, fell 13% to Rs 35,509 crore, because some planned orders were pushed back. Work from abroad filled the gap.
Money from abroad is also a big part of what L&T earns today. Its international revenue was Rs 45,870 crore in the quarter, or 58% of the total.
The Middle East is a big part of this story. Reuters reported that L&T's business there recovered, even with the ongoing war in the region. The company itself still warned that the Middle East poses "varied downside risks" to global growth, which means things could still go wrong there.
Why did profit jump so much?
L&T's total revenue rose 16% to Rs 78,750 crore. Profit grew even faster, from Rs 3,926 crore a year ago to Rs 5,202 crore now.
Part of the reason is lower costs on money. Reuters said finance costs fell 38%. Finance costs are the interest a company pays on its loans, a bit like the EMI a family pays on a home loan. Depreciation also fell 5%. Depreciation is the cost of machines and buildings wearing out over time, like a phone that is worth less each year.
All of these numbers are "consolidated". That means they add up L&T and the smaller companies it owns, as one big family budget.
What about drones and defence?
L&T also makes things for India's armed forces. Reuters reported that the company expects revenue from its defence technology business, which builds drones and other unmanned systems, to triple over the next five years. L&T plans to add more factory space for this.
There is also a change in the metro business. L&T has agreed to sell its full stake in its Hyderabad metro unit to Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited, a Telangana government company. The deal is now expected to close by 31 December 2026, the company's results document says.
What does this mean for work and people?
Every metro line or gas plant needs engineers, welders, drivers, designers and many smaller suppliers. L&T spent about Rs 14,246 crore on its employees' pay and benefits in these three months alone, its results document shows. The company had 4,07,438 employees in 2024, according to Wikipedia.
A full order book means this kind of work can keep going for years.
Not everything is easy, though. L&T said inflation is still a worry, because of food prices, high energy costs and bad weather. It also noted that the Reserve Bank of India raised the repo rate, the rate at which it lends to banks, by 25 basis points to 5.50%. When this rate rises, loans usually get costlier for everyone.
In Mr Subrahmanyan's words, the company "delivered a strong quarter in an everchanging geopolitical landscape". The list of work is long. Now L&T has to finish it on time.
Watch: L&T's results explained
This video walks through L&T's July to September 2026 results and the company's call with analysts.
This one shows how L&T grew into the company that builds many of India's biggest projects.
Sources
- L&T: Consolidated financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2026
- Mint (Reuters): L&T Q2 profit rises 33%
- Business Standard: L&T Q2 profit jumps 33% to Rs 5,202 crore
- Zee Business: L&T Q2 FY27 results
- Upstox: L&T Q2 FY27 results
- Wikipedia: Larsen & Toubro
- Cover photo: L&T innovation campus under construction, Chennai, by VtTN, CC BY-SA 4.0
You may republish this story under CC BY 4.0: credit Arshdeep Singh and link to this page.