Noida-based information technology firm HCL Technologies on Friday reported a consolidated net income of ₹3,142 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, up 18.5 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), as compared to ₹2,651 crore in corresponding period last year.

The company declared a dividend of ₹4 per share, being the 71st consecutive quarter of dividend payout and also said it will be hiring 7,000-9,000 freshers as the businesses grow in the coming quarters.

Revenue of the company also grew by 6 per cent y-o-y to ₹18,594 crore during the quarter, as against ₹17,528 crore, in July-September 2019.

On a quarterly basis, while the net income grew by 7.4 per cent for the company (from ₹2,925 crore), revenues grew only by 4 per cent.

“Our stellar performance is broad-based across verticals, service lines, geographies and Mode 1, 2, 3 offerings. Our new bookings remained very robust, it increased 35 per cent compared to the last quarter, we won 15 transformational deals and the deal pipeline grew 20 per cent quarter-on-quarter, which is an all-time high,” C Vijayakumar, President and CEO of the company, said.

Salary hikes

He said the company is also implementing salary increments up to E3 levels effective October 1, and for E4 and above levels, effective January 1. “This is only a one-quarter shift from the regular increment cycles that we give our employees annually,” Vijayakumar said.

He added that the salary hikes, which were previously deferred amid business uncertainty on account of the Covid-19 pandemic disruptions, will be similar to the previous year. Last year, the company had offered an average 6 per cent raise to its staff in India and 2.5 per cent increase in wages of overseas employees.

On hiring plans, Apparao V, Chief Human Resources Officer, said that the company onboarded over 1,500 freshers in the September quarter and is significantly enhancing that in the next two quarters.

“A lot of universities and colleges had not finished their final exams, so the students were not yet qualified to join us though we have rolled out offers...we hired about 3,000 freshers in the first and second quarters; and in the next two quarters, we expect to hire at least 7,000-9,000 additional freshers,” he said.

As of September 30, HCL Tech had a total employee count of 1,53,085 people as against 1,47,123 employees in corresponding period last year.

Shares of HCL Tech closed at ₹827.10 apiece on the BSE on Friday, down 3.76 per cent from the previous close.

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