Driven by new-age technologies such as Internet of Things, HCL Technologies on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹1,926 crore for the third quarter ended March 31.

The net profit grew by 14 per cent year-on-year (YoY) compared with ₹1,683 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Revenue grew by 15 per cent YoY to ₹10,698 crore during the period compared with ₹9,267 crore in January-March quarter last year. The company follows July-June as its financial year.

“The market is undergoing a tectonic shift as sales and earnings of blue chip majors are under pressure, while average life spans are declining.

“I am glad that HCL has caught the pulse of the market, and has become a partner of choice to world’s leading enterprises, enabling them to lead in the new digital age,” Shiv Nadar, Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, HCL Technologies, said. The company won eight deals of more than $100 million plus, during the quarter as compared with seven similar deals in corresponding quarter last year.

The company's total headcount was recorded at 1,04,896 as of March-end against 1,04,184 in March last year.

“This nine-month financial year, we signed 25 transformation deals with more than $4 billion of total value. We have significantly enhanced our strengths in new age services and domain leadership through strategic client acquisitions,” Anant Gupta, President and Chief Executive Officer, said.

PTI adds: The company has significantly beefed up its strength in new-age services and domain leadership through strategic client acquisitions, he added.

It has announced a dividend of ₹6 per share.

Gupta said financial services revenues declined 1.3 per cent, but those from life-sciences and healthcare grew 6.4 per cent, public services 7.1 per cent and telecom, media, publishing and entertainment 4.2 per cent on a quarterly basis.

“... (there are a) couple of corners of softness in banking... Typically, financial services as a percentage of the total IT spend worldwide is about 30 per cent. So, a little shift there makes a big difference,” he said.

Gupta added that financial institutions are looking at meeting changing regulatory requirements and making higher usage of technologies like artificial intelligence.

“... As banks look at creating more captives, they will move work from various parts of the globe into... low-cost centres in phase I, before they start to move out the work specifically to third parties or outsourcers,” he added.

Financial services accounted for 25 per cent of the company’s revenues while lifesciences and healthcare comprised 12.8 per cent, followed by public services at 11.1 per cent and telecommunications, media, publishing and entertainment at 9.9 per cent. Manufacturing is the largest segment for HCL Technologies, accounting for 31.4 per cent of revenues.

In dollar terms, HCL Technologies’ net profit grew 5.5 per cent to $285.1 million while revenue rose 6.5 per cent to $1.58 billion in the March quarter over a year ago.

On geographical contribution, Gupta said the revenues from the Americas and Europe continue to remain strong.

“Europe is still strong, but currency is a dampener. There are natural nuances of the markets... Western Europe and the US are similar on re-bids (opportunity),” he added.

HCL Technologies is setting up a design thinking and process digitisation lab in Texas. Besides, it is establishing two delivery centres in Madurai and Lucknow.

Attrition grows Attrition in IT services increased to 17.3 per cent in the said quarter, from 16.7 per cent in the previous one.

The company’s cash and cash equivalents stood at ₹729.3 crore at the end of March 31, 2016.

“Healthy cash generation in the last 12 months is reflected in 97 per cent of the net income getting converted to operating cash flow. We have pursued a well—balanced capital allocation strategy through a combination of capital expenditure, dividends and acquisitions,” HCL Technologies CFO Anil Chanana said.

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