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Larsen & Toubro

Larsen & Toubro

Larsen & Toubro, Started With Dairy Equipment To Leading Indian Multinational Corporation.

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Founded in 1946, Larsen & Toubro is a market leader in almost every industry. The conglomerate has achieved and maintained leadership in its primary business sectors for more than eight decades due to a robust, customer-focused strategy and a never-ending pursuit of world-class quality.

About the Company

Larsen & Toubro, also known as L&T, is a leading Indian multinational corporation with business operations in various industries like construction, engineering, technology, manufacturing, financial services, and information technology. L&T is ranked among the top five construction firms worldwide. The company is headquartered in Mumbai, India. L&T Group consists of 118 subsidiaries, 25 joint ventures, six associates, and 35 joint operations corporations. The company is listed on the NSE and BSE. In 2022, it had a revenue of over $20 billion. It serves clients from various industries in more than 50 countries.

History

In 1938, Henning Larsen and Soren Toubro, two Danish engineers, formed a company in Bombay. The company started as a business that imported and sold Danish dairy equipment. Unfortunately, import limitations that came into effect after Germany invaded Denmark in 1940 severely hurt the company’s business. Despite their difficulties, the pair decided to stay in India and establish a local workshop to provide services and technical work. During World War II, they discovered a profitable commercial opportunity to construct and repair ships. As a result, Larsen & Toubro was founded. In 1940, the company received its first significant order to build a soda ash facility/plant for the Tata Group. The calibre of service and prompt service of L&T delighted numerous national and international businesses. They started working with lots of foreign players. Gradually, L&T also became a representative of various British equipment manufacturers for producing soaps, glass, hydrogenated oils, etc. In 1945, the company made a deal with the US-based Caterpillar Tractor to market earth-moving machinery.

In 1946, L&T was incorporated, and it established offices in Madras, Calcutta, and New Delhi. In 1950, it went public and became a listed company. The company was selected as a contractor for constructing nuclear reactors in 1965. L&T was invited by Dr. Homi Bhabha, the Atomic Energy Commission’s (AEC) chairman at the time, to provide vital parts for atomic reactors in the 1950s. L&T began to obtain major projects from the ISRO in the 1970s and 1980s. In order to design weapon and missile systems, it also collaborated with DRDO.

Larsen & Toubro
Image source: moneycontrol.com

Operations

L&T is also a top supplier of design-to-delivery services for India’s defence industry. It builds underground facilities, military installations, and storage facilities. Additionally, L&T provides a selection of defence-related vessels, such as warships, submarines, support vessels, and unique naval platforms. An important participant in India’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives is L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd. It has finished significant projects in several important industries, including renewable energy, transmission and distribution lines, ports, water supply, etc. The world’s largest metro project under PPP form is the L&T Metro Rail in Hyderabad. It extends over three corridors for 69.2 kilometers.

Founders – Henning Holck-Larsen, Søren Kristian Toubro

Henning Holck-Larsen and Soren Kristian Toubro, two Danish engineers, established L&T in Bombay in 1938. They were equally dedicated to enhancing India’s engineering capacity to fulfill market demands. Danish classmates Henning Larsen and Soren Toubro, who were studying India in history classes, perhaps never imagined that they would one day write the history of that auspicious country. The two companions made the decision to leave the conveniences of living in Europe in 1938 and launch their own business in India instead.

CEO – S N Subrahmanyan

S N Subrahmanyan is the CEO and Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro. He has been serving as the company’s CEO since 2017. In 1984, he started working with Larsen & Toubro’s ECC Division. He has an MBA from Symbiosis, Pune and also attended London Business School.

Mindtree

Mindtree – An 22-year Old Indian IT Company That Operates Under Larsen & Toubro.

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Mindtree is a publicly-traded company that is established in the IT industry. It was founded in 1999 by a group of 10 people. Most of them were Indian IT professionals while three of them invested through an entity incorporated in Mauritius. Mindtree provides various IT services including outsourcing and consulting. The company’s headquarters is based in Bangalore, India and it is currently a part of L&T Group. Debashis Chatterjee is the present MD and CEO of the company.

About Mindtree

Mindtree is an Indian IT company offering services on a global scale. It has hired more than 23,000 people over the past two decades who serve more than 300 active clients. Mindtree has business across 18 countries and the major areas that the company deals with are e-commerce, cloud computing, data analytics, digital transformation, resource planning, etc. The company offers services in various sectors like banking, insurance, consumer packed goods, manufacturing, entertainment, hospitality, etc. Mindtree has five overseas subsidiaries located in China, the UK, the US, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Mindtree
Image source: financialexpress.com

Founding History Of The Company

Mindtree was officially incorporated on 5th August 1999. The group of 10 IT professionals started the company with an initial investment of Rs 169 million. The company raised this amount by subscription of equity shares during the first round of funding. Mindtree received the initial funding from LSO Investment (P) Limited, Walden Software Investments Limited, Amalgamated Holdings Limited, and Vaitarna Holdings Private Limited. In 2001, Mindtree conducted the second round of funding where it raised another Rs 590 million from existing and new (Capital Group and Franklin Templeton) investors.

In 2006, the company filed for its IPO and became a public company. It was listed on both the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange. After the company became public, it rebranded itself with a new logo and brand identity. The company eventually started planning its expansion in various Indian states like Chennai and Bhubaneshwar. It also acquired two companies in the early 2000s, namely, ASAP and ARPSL (software division) and Linc Software Services Private Limited. It also established a partnership with Volvo Information Technology for IT outsourcing.

Expansion And Growth

In 2008, the company changed its name from Mindtree Consulting Limited to Mindtree Limited. In 2009, the company signed an agreement with the world’s largest private equity firm, Carlyle Group. The agreement was such that Mindtree would provide its IT infrastructure management and services that would help in monitoring Carlyle’s IT production servers. Later in 2010, the company also launched security services so that businesses can solidify their security and compliance strategies. In 2011, Mindtree was recognized as a top outsourcing company in India. It also won the Marathon Awards South Asia 2010 for its Assist Technologies Program. Mindtree also won the prestigious Corporate Governance Award in 2012. It also became one of the top five companies at an international level for R&D services providers.

In 2012, Mindtree established its first delivery center in the US (Gainesville, Florida). And once it started expanding overseas after five years it has established offices in 17 countries. In 2015 and 2016, Mindtree acquired a few companies outside India that helped it strengthen its American and European markets. In 2015, it acquired three companies, namely, Discoverture Solutions LLC, Bluefin Solutions Limited, and Relational Solutions Inc. IN 2016, it acquired a USA-based company called Magnet 360. In 2019, Larsen & Toubro, one of the biggest Indian conglomerates took control over Mindtree, and currently, it owns a 61.08% stake in the company.

Debashis Chatterjee – CEO

Debasish Chatterjee hails from a very rich industrial background as he has 30 years of working experience in various fields including IT, relationship management, strategic alliance, etc. Before joining Mindtree, he worked at Cognizant as the President of Global Delivery and Digital Systems and Technology. He also has working experience at TCS, Mahindra & Mahindra, and IBM. He completed his education at Jadavpur University.