MUMBAI: Larsen & Toubro chairman AM Naik has criticised domestic banks saying they have denied relief to the private sector by not cutting lending rates in line with the reduction in benchmark rates announced by the RBI.

Since January, the RBI has effected 75 basis point reduction in the benchmark repo rate, which is an indicative rate for banks. But most lenders have cut their respective lending rates only by 20-30 bps during the period. Naik said industry needs a cut of at least 1% to get some relief.

MUMBAI: Engineering major Larsen & Toubro aims to restructure its top deck as part of its succession plan and will do away with the position of 'managing director and chief executive officer' in its current form after incumbent K Venkataramanan retires in September, chairman AM Naik told ET on Monday.

The $15-billion company has been grooming executives from within the company for leadership roles and SN Subrahmanyan, board member and senior executive vice president (infrastructure and construction), is seen leading the race for the top spot.

Shares of Ratnamani Metals & Tubes were up over 2% at Rs 602 after the company announced that it has received an order from engineering major Larsen & Toubro.

The order is for supply of Carbon Steel (CS) pipes worth Rs 528 crore (net of taxes and duties) and the order will executed by June, 2017, the company said in a release.

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro today said it has bagged a contract worth Rs 1,070 crore in Saudi Arabia for constructing ballastless tracks for Riyadh metro lines.

The water & effluent treatment strategic business group of L&T Construction has won turnkey orders worth Rs 1,489 crore in August 2015, in three packages, from Public Health Engineering Department, Ajmer, under the Rajasthan Rural Water Supply and Fluorosis Mitigation Project (Nagaur).

The projects, funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), are aimed at providing potable water to 986 villages and seven urban towns in Nagaur district and 111 villages and two towns of Bikaner district in Rajasthan.

Larsen & Toubro today said power transmission and distribution business of L&T Construction has bagged orders worth Rs 864 crore from Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation ‘KAHRAMAA’.

“The power transmission and distribution business of L&T Construction has won a prestigious order in the Middle East from Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation ‘KAHRAMAA’ worth QAR (Qatari Riyal) 491.45 million (Rs 864 crore),” Larsen & Toubro said in a BSE filing.

The Power Transmission & Distribution Business of L&T Construction has won orders worth Rs 1,563 crore in both the international and domestic markets in July and August.

As a strategic breakthrough in the ASEAN market, the company has received order from Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) for the design, manufacture, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of a 500 kV double circuit transmission line in Malaysia. This is one of the three packages of the 500 kV overhead double circuit transmission line for TNB from Yong-Peng to Lenggeng in Peninsular Malaysia which will be critical for evacuating power from the power plants in the Johor state.

Mumbai: Larsen & Tourbo (L&T), India’ largest engineering and construction company, has scrapped a plan to develop a new port in Kacchigadh, near the temple town of Dwarka in Gujarat, owing to environmental reasons, according to two state government officials close to the development.

“L&T has written to the government that it no longer intends to pursue the port project in Gujarat due to environmental reasons. L&T had appointed the Gujarat Ecology Commission to carry out environmental studies and found that the place was full of corals and mangroves. As a result they want to exit,” said an official of the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), the state regulator of ports and maritime activities.

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), on Thursday proposed to ease norms for infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) as a way to encourage firms to unlock capital.

In September 2014, the capital markets regulator had allowed firms to launch real estate investment trusts (REITs) and InvITs to help cash-strapped developers get easier access to funds while creating a new investment avenue for institutions and wealthy individuals. However, infrastructure companies have been slow to respond as they sought a relaxation in rules and clarity on taxation.

L&T Finance Holdings plans to sell a 3.5-4 per cent stake to private equity (PE) investors and raise about Rs 1,000 crore as capital to fund growth in the next two years.

The L&T group’s financial services arm expects to complete the process this financial year.

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