HCL Technologies's Q4 profit rises 29% at Rs 659 crore

BANGALORE: HCL Technologies Ltd, country's fourth-largest software services exporter, reported a 29 per cent rise in quarterly net profit, just shy of expectations, after winning more outsourcing orders amid the global economic uncertainty.

HCL Technologies said on Wednesday consolidated net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30 rose to Rs 659 crore ($117.5 million) from Rs 510 crore a year earlier.

"A five-fold increase in 100 million-plus clients, a 31 per cent increase in revenues, 54 per cent increase in EBIT and 48 per cent rise in net income year-on-year, establishes that industry leading growth can be achieved profitably," HCL Technologies vice chairman and CEO Vineet Nayar said.

For the year ended June 30, 2012, the company reported a 47.8 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2,526 crore, as against Rs 1,709.4 crore in 2010-11.

Revenues increased 31.2 per cent in 2011-12 to Rs 21,031.2 crore from Rs 16,034.2 crore in the previous fiscal.

"Our operating cash flows have continued to be in excess of net income. Over the last five years, we have returned close to 60 per cent of the free cash flows generated to our shareholders as dividend and this fiscal we achieved 26 per cent return on equity, highest in the last five years," HCL Technologies CFO Anil Chanana said.

Cash and cash equivalents stood at Rs 667.3 crore as on June 30, 2012.

The Board of Directors of the company has recommended a final dividend of Rs 4 per equity share of Rs 2 each for the year ended June 30, 2012.

During the quarter, HCL Tech added 7,008 people (gross) and 1,855 employees (net), taking the total headcount to 84,319. Attrition level stood at 14 per cent in the April-June, 2012 quarter.

During the reporting quarter, HCL Technologies signed eight multi-year, multi-million transformational deals, while in FY2011-12, it won 52 transformational deals, the statement added.

Analysts had forecast a net profit of Rs 675 crore for the company, whose customers includeXerox Corp and Readers Digest Association Inc, according to Thomson Reuters data.

HCL and bigger rival Infosys Ltd are part of country's $100 billion information technology and back-office services sector earning the bulk of their revenues from customers in the United Statesand Europe.

An uncertain global economy and increased competition from global rivals such as Accenture Plcmake the outlook a tough one for the Indian providers. Infosys, on July 12, provided a worse-than-expected forecast of dollar-sales growth for the year ending March 2013.