Driven by growth in infrastructure and financial services, HCL Technologies on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 965 crore for the second quarter ended December 31, up 68.5 per cent compared with Rs 573 crore in the same period the previous year.
Revenues jumped 19.6 per cent to Rs 6,274 crore in the October-December quarter from Rs 5,245 crore in the same period of 2011.
Noida-based HCL Technologies, which has July to June as its financial year, also announced a dividend of Rs 2 a share, and this is the 40th consecutive quarter of dividend payout.
Headcount
Total headcount as of December 31 stood at 85,194 people against 83,076 employees in the corresponding month previous year. However, on sequential basis, the company’s headcount dropped by 141 people from 85,335 people as of September 2012 due to lesser utilisation of the employees.
The company also had a net loss of 395 people (employees leaving the company) during the quarter as compared to net addition of 1,734 employees in the same quarter in 2011.
HCL Tech won six large deals during October-December, leading to a billion-dollar booking quarter. In total, it won 418 deals during the quarter against 362 deals in the same quarter the previous year.
“On the back of this exceptional calendar year performance, our quarterly results demonstrate increasing momentum. Our net margin has improved for five straight quarters to reach 15.4 per cent. All in all, this has been a quarter of great impetus which has placed HCL in a position of advantage for leveraging the changing market dynamics,” Vineet Nayar, Vice-Chairman, HCL Technologies, said. Meanwhile, the company has appointed Anant Gupta as its President and Chief Executive Officer, who was the President and Chief Operating Officer.
Vineet Nayar, who was CEO and the Vice-Chairman of the company, will continue as Vice-Chairman.
The results beat analysts’ expectations and operating margins were positive, partly due to reduction in number of employees. “The differentiated strategy of the company has resulted in sustained growth with improving margins. Continued differentiation with cost management under the new management may result in growth for the company in the future quarters,” Dipen Shah, Head of Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities said.