Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is reportedly planning to invest $12 billion over the next five years, a third of which will be accounted for by green energy.
Chief executive officer S.N. Subrahmanyan in an interview to Bloomberg said that L&T is planning to build 2-3 million tonnes of green hydrogen and ammonia capacity with an investment of around $4 billion.
The engineering conglomerate has approached some coastal states in India to acquire 500-1,000 acres of land for hydrogen facilities. L&T plans to manufacture electrolysers in December that will be backed by renewable energy from ReNew Power. This will be used to produce green hydrogen.
L&T thus joins the likes of Reliance and the Adani group which are betting billions of rupees on green energy.
In its annual report for 2022-23, RIL had said that it is in the process of establishing a world class solar energy value chain apart from also setting up a green hydrogen ecosystem. Reliance is looking to provide affordable green hydrogen as a viable alternative to traditional fuels. It had announced the setting up of giga factories at the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex at Jamnagar.
Meanwhile, addressing his last annual general meeting (AGM) as the non-executive chairman of L&T, A.M. Naik said between 1999 and 2023, the group revenues grew from Rs 5,000 crore to nearly Rs 1,83,000 crore and this surge was achieved largely through organic growth.
Over the same period, the company’s market cap climbed from Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 3,74,000 crore at a compounded annual growth rate of nearly 20 per cent. This enabled L&T to issue bonus four times to its shareholders.
“Our emphasis on exports took both brand L&T and brand India beyond our shores. This involved not just a change in markets, but a change in mindset. We began to establish our footprint across geographies.
“Overseas revenues today account for nearly one-third of your company’s total turnover. All this is the outcome of the international thrust that we initiated in 2000...We added a new term to the lexicon of the company – global benchmarking,’’ he told the shareholders.
