Mahindra Satyam has come out of ‘convalescence' it suffered three years ago. “We are now healthy and ready to give our competitors run for their own money,” Mr Vineet Nayyar, Chairman, has said.
European crisis, however, is a thing of concern, though none of its customers showed any knee-jerk reaction as yet. People are cautious but there are no abrupt reactions from them, Mr C.P. Gurnani, Chief Executive Officer, said.
The company, however, pushed the merger (with Tech Mahindra) process to next year. “We have not yet started the process. It (merger) will happen next financial year,” Mr Nayyar said.
The company has posted a net profit of Rs 238 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2011, showing a growth of 5.7 per cent quarter on quarter. In the same quarter last year, it posted a profit of Rs 23 crore, 76 per cent lower than the previous quarter profit.
The revenue for the second quarter stood at Rs 1,578 crore, 10 per cent more than Rs 1,433 crore in the previous quarter.
No pricing pressure
“All the three engines –manufacturing, BFSI and media and entertainment – are growing well,” said, attributing 10 per cent growth in revenue sequentially,” Mr Gurnani said.
Mr Gurnani said there was no pressure on the pricing front. The company added 36 new customers in the quarters. It, however, added only 8 to list of customers (228) based on their contribution.
He denied that the bench size (employee reserve) was not a drag on the revenues. “Our utilisation rate at 75 per cent proves that. We induct newly-hired depending on work on hand,” he said, asked about delays in induction of people hired from campuses.
The company has 33,000 employees, including net additions of 654 in the quarter.
Mr Nayyar said the winding down of ADS (American Depository Receipts) was going on well. “We expect the de-registration process (from the US bourses) to be completed by February next,” he said.
Legal issues
The company faces two major legal battles at home. One with Mr Ramalinga Raju's companies over alleged advances of Rs 1,230 crore to Satyam Computer Services (to tide over cash crunch). The other is with Income Tax Department over tax demand of Rs 2,114 crore. “You can't tax us for fictitious figures,” Mr Gurnani said.