Leading IT education provider NIIT Ltd has posted a massive drop in profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal. The company posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 9.4 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013, against a profit after tax of Rs 11.5 crore in the same quarter last year.
Vijay Thadani, Chief Executive Officer, NIIT Ltd, attributed the loss to the impact of foreign exchange fluctuation and a change in dividend distribution tax treatment.
“If you see last year’s same quarter, our operating conditions (revenues, operating margin and depreciation) are at the same level. The difference lies in the non-operating side,” Thadani said. The company reported total revenues of Rs 222.2 crore during the quarter, slightly lower than Rs 227.5 crore in the year-ago period.
However, on a positive note, the revenue from the Corporate Learning Solutions vertical increased by 16 per cent at Rs 84.4 crore during the first quarter.
“Order intake for CLS grew 26 per cent (year on year) giving a revenue visibility of $144 million. Three new international clients were added for managed training services during Q1,” a statement from the company said. Further, the enrolment in GNIIT increased by nine per cent and in Cloud Campus, which was launched in May this year, crossed 33,000. Given the recent dip in hiring sentiments in the IT sector, the company has been diversifying into non-IT courses as a growth strategy.
Rajendra S. Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Ltd, said, “NIIT Cloud Campus is the cornerstone of our growth strategy.”
The enrolments in NIIT’s banking courses grew 41 per cent during the first quarter.
However, going forward, Thadani expects IT companies to start hiring once more. He said the results posted by a few IT companies show growth and this was likely to improve sentiments in the sector and help push up hiring.