On the back of increased demand for outsourcing services, Noida-based technology major HCL Technologies today posted a 59 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 1,624 crore for the quarter ended March 31, as compared to the year-ago period.
The country’s fourth largest IT firm had reported a profit of Rs 1,021 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13. The company follows July-June fiscal.
HCL Technologies’ revenue in the quarter under review rose 29.8 per cent to Rs 8,349 crore from Rs 6,430 crore a year earlier.
'We continue on our growth momentum with a strong revenue growth. The Application Services business registered a robust performance… Infrastructure Services have continued to punch their weight in the market,' HCL Technologies President and Chief Executive Officer Anant Gupta said.
Though the company does not provide revenue forecasts, Gupta said he was confident that the company will continue to win deals, especially in the re-bid market.
"There is significant momentum in the re-bid market, it's a USD 120 billion opportunity. We are competing with large international firms and winning deals. In Q3 alone, we have signed 12 transformational deals and over USD 1 billion in total contract value. The deal pipeline continues to be robust and should give us good momentum," he said.
The company added two clients each in the USD 50 million and USD 30 million categories during the quarter.
Talking about the business environment, Gupta told The Hindu, 'My market outlook continues to be extremely positive. When you dig deeper there will obviously be variations depending on services, service mix, verticals…but largely on an overall level I see the market to by buoyant…it is not an inhibiting factor.'
Further, he said while Europe continues to do well, the rest of the world (RoW) segment showed significant growth on the back of a large systems integration deal.
"Americas was flat quarter-on-quarter but that is not a concern. The deal pipeline remains robust," he added.
The Americas market grew 11 per cent year-on-year, Europe 26 per cent and RoW 4 per cent.
Asked, if the company whose cash and cash equivalents stood at Rs 1,045.5 crore as of March 31, was looking at acquisitions, Gupta said the company continues to hunt for favourable prospects.
In dollar terms, HCL Technologies' net profit grew 39.9 per cent to USD 264.2 million, while revenue rose 14.3 per cent to USD 1.36 billion in Q3 of FY14 from a year ago.
The company announced an interim dividend of Rs 4 per equity share of face value of Rs 2.
During the quarter, HCL Technologies added 8,291 people (gross) and 1,858 (net) employees, taking the total head count to 90,190 as on March 31, 2014.