Newsletter
Larsen & Toubro, along with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has won a ₹2,500-5,000 crore order to build the world’s largest Automated People Mover (APM) system at Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport.
What’s going on: L&T will build infrastructure for driverless trains that will move passengers between terminals. Think tracks, electricity supply, signalling, communication systems, platform screen doors and the equipment needed at the train depot. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will bring its APM technology and systems expertise.
Once fully developed, Al Maktoum International Airport is expected to become world's largest airport, capable of handling 260 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo every year.
Zoom out: L&T seems to be collecting orders at this point.
This is its 11th announced order win in just a month. Since July 20, the value of these wins adds up to roughly ₹95,000 crore to ₹1.3 lakh crore, based on the company's order-value classifications.
And this week alone has been busy.
On Monday, L&T's offshore energy business won an ₹15,000+ crore order to develop multiple offshore facilities in the Middle East.
On Wednesday, its technology arm L&T Technology Services bagged a five-year deal worth over $75 million, or roughly ₹718 crore, from a major global technology company.
Bigger picture: during the US-Iran conflict, L&T shares came under pressure partly because investors were worried about the company's sizeable Middle East exposure. A prolonged conflict could have delayed projects and hurt new business from the region.
Fast-forward to now, and that same region is handing L&T some very large contracts.
So, the Middle East exposure that had investors nervous during the war is also proving to be a pretty important source of L&T's new business.
