Exactly four years after it took over the reins of the scam-hit Satyam Computer Services, Mahindra Satyam said the turnaround journey is complete. But the company’s net profit falls by 15 per cent in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, at Rs 454 crore against Rs 534 crore.

The net profit for the full year too declined to Rs 1,164 crore from 1,306 crore, a dip of 11 per cent.

The provision for tax of Rs 75 crore in the quarter and Rs 412 crore for the full year had resulted in the slide in profits. The personnel expenses too went up to Rs 1,284 crore in the quarter (Rs 1,114 crore).

The absolute net profit would have been much lower but for the addition of Rs 134 crore in the quarter. The sum, which was provided by the company in 2009 to support the ailing subsidiaries, was reversed this quarter.

Though the US is coming back and the demand (for IT services) expected to pick up, the company sees challenges in the European market. “Europe is still not out of the woods. Greek is in trauma. Italy is facing issues. People worry about France. Europe will pose a challenge,” Vineet Nayyar, Chairman of Mahindra Satyam, said.

Announcing the results at a press conference here on Thursday, he said that the Gulf, Africa and Asia-Pacific economies are growing.

Amalgamation

Expressing the hope to get a positive outcome at the Andhra Pradesh High Court, he said the 99.5 per cent of shareholders have approved of the amalgamation.

“This is a shareholder decision and not a judicial decision,” he said.

The moment the court gave its nod, the two companies would be one with effect from April 2011.

“We are expecting the court order in the first two weeks of June. As it is we have been operating as one and all systems aligned,” he said.

Ankita Somani, a Research Analyst (IT & Telecom) at Angel Broking, said the company disappointed on the operational front. “The company’s operational performance was below expectations as EBITDA margin declined by about 145bp quarter-on-quarter to 20.1 per cent “as against our expectations of improvement in margins”.

“We wait for management clarity on decline in operational margins as the company continued to deliver operational exuberance with decent volume growth since last five quarters (till third quarter of FY2013),” she said.

Chief Financial Officer Vasanth Krishnan said the US contributed 53 per cent, followed by Europe with 22 per cent and the rest of the world with 24 per cent.

Attrition rate up

The attrition rate went up to 14 per cent from 13 per cent in the preceding quarter.

The total number of employees fell to 36,067 at the end of March 31, 2013, from 36,956 as of December 31, 2012.

kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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