HCL Technologies, India's fourth-biggest software services provider, beat analysts' estimates with a 73 per cent rise in quarterly profit after winning orders and keeping a lid on hiring.

Net profit rose to Rs 10.4 billion ($193 million) for the fiscal third-quarter ended March 31 from Rs 6 billion in the year-earlier period, said HCL Technologies, whose customers include Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia.

That compared with the average forecast of Rs 9.35 billion in a survey of 16 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. HCL follows a July-June fiscal year.
It was also much faster than a 3 per cent rise in quarterly profit at larger rival Infosys, which has been losing market share to the likes of HCL and industry leader Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Shares of Infosys plunged 21 per cent on Friday after it issued lower-than-expected revenue guidance.

During the quarter, HCL added 37 customers. The company reduced 791 staff, taking the total to 84,403 from 85,194 at the end of the December quarter, maintaining tight control of headcount after shedding jobs in the previous quarter as well.

Shiv Nadar, chairman and chief strategy officer, HCL Technologies said, "HCL's sustained growth momentum has been possible because of our uncompromising focus on some strong value fundamentals. Our corporate governance practices are one such foundation which have enabled us to generate long term value for all of our stakeholders. Empowered by the principles of integrity and transparency, these practices continue to be our core differentiator in a rapidly evolving macro environment."

"A key reason behind HCL's stellar performance over the last few years has been its focus on delivering technology led business process transformation to Global 2000 Corporations. The future of the IT services industry will lie in transforming traditional outsourcing models to higher value, innovation driven, non-linear and outcome based business models," said Vineet Nayar, vice chairman, HCL Technologies.

"We have delivered yet another quarter of strong performance. Our net margins have improved for six straight quarters and are up by 51.5 per cent along with a robust 14.6 per cent US dollar constant currency growth for the 12 month period ended March 31, 2013," HCL Technologies president and CEO Anant Gupta said.

Gupta added: "Amidst a challenging and uncertain business environment, HCL continues on its growth trajectory fuelled by its Alternative Outsourcing (AO) approach led by two unique value propositions of Alternative ASM and Enterprise Function as a Service (EFaaS)."

Exports in India's $108 billion IT outsourcing industry rose 10.2 per cent in the fiscal year that ended in March, according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies ( Nasscom). The industry group expects export growth of 12 to 14 per cent in the fiscal year that started this month.

 

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com