HCL Technologies has reported a 28.7 per cent increase in net income at Rs 602.5 crore for the third quarter ended March 31, 2012.

The company had posted a net income of Rs 468.2 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal. This was on account of new deal wins. New client bookings stood at $1.5 billion across 14 customers in this quarter.

New accounts

“Almost 70 per cent of the deals are new accounts for HCL with financial services leading in verticals with 46 per cent share and Europe leading in geographies with 51 per cent share,” the company said in a statement.

Speaking on the results, Mr Vineet Nayar, Vice-Chairman and CEO, HCL Technologies, said, “In the current quarter, we had 50:50 split between run the business and discretionary spend. Our positive commentary on the market is largely owing to the deal renewals that we are seeing in the market. The perception that we play at lower margins is not true but is nevertheless helping us by barring new entrants into the market.”

The capital expenditure for the company stood at Rs 4.6 crore during the quarter. Growth driver for the company was the European market, which grew 17.1 per cent year-on-year. Revenue from the Americas grew at 19.7 per cent.

HCL Technologies saw a 26 per cent growth in revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 compared to the year-ago period. Revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 5,215.6 crore against Rs 4,138.2 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The company saw 0.6 per cent decline in revenues quarter-on-quarter owing to currency appreciation. “We witnessed 90 basis point negative impact on our margins owing to currency appreciation which was overcome by margin expansion on core business,” added Mr Nayar.

Interim dividend

The company has announced an interim dividend of Rs 2 per equity share of face value of Rs 2 each.

During the quarter, HCL Technologies' headcount went down by 612 from last quarter with the cumulative headcount of 82,464 as on March 31, 2012.

“From April to September, our headcount growth was higher than revenue growth. Our hires were then deployed for training and their utilisation has gone up. As a result, from October to March, the revenue growth has been better than head count growth. In the next quarter, our hiring would be split 80:20 between laterals and fresh hires,” the company said in a statement.

HCL Technologies' shares closed at Rs 495.55 on the BSE, up 3.06 per cent from their previous close.

> heena.k@thehindu.co.in

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