HCL Technologies on Wednesday posted a 72.6 per cent jump in net profit for the third quarter ended March 31, on the back of strong growth in infrastructure services, bringing cheer to the investors after Infosys results disappointed last week.
HCL Technologies net profit rose to Rs 1,039.9 crore during the January-March 2013 quarter, from Rs 602.5 crore in the same period last year. The company follows a July-June fiscal year.
The country’s fourth largest software services firm’s revenues stood at Rs 6,424.6 crore during the reported quarter, up 23.2 per cent from Rs 5,215.6 crore in the year-ago period.
“Amidst a challenging and uncertain business environment, HCL Technologies 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)," HCL Technologies President and CEO Anant Gupta told reporters here.
During the quarter, the company added 37 new customers, including one USD 100 million client.
Gupta said the deal pipeline is growing, and the first two quarters - July to December - of the 2013-14 fiscal are expected to be better.
He added that while non-discretionary spending and the renewal market is still driving growth, clients are still cautious on discretionary spending.
Its larger rival Infosys had disappointed the market with a forecast of 6-10 per cent growth in revenue in 2013-14, less than the 12-14 per cent estimated for the industry by Nasscom.
Dip in overall headcount
HCL Technologies saw a dip of 791 employees in overall headcount, taking the total number of employees to 84,403 at the end of March 2013. The total employee count stood at 85,194 on December 31, 2012.
The software services division saw a reduction of 1,638 employees, while infrastructure services division reported a net addition of 638.
The company, which has been facing protests over delaying the absorption of people to whom it made job offers last year, has seen a decline in number of employees for the second consecutive quarter. The net addition in the previous quarter stood at negative 395.
"We are talking to students directly. As the demand for IT services pick up we will continue to hire. Of the Letters of Intent made in 2012, we have taken about 1,200 people on board," the company’s Human Resources Head Prithvi Shergill said, adding that the company has not visited the campuses yet for this year fresher hiring.
Gupta said, "This is not an HCL only problem. There is a fundamental shift in the IT sector. Industry structures are shifting...shift in the value propositions which corporations globally are looking at...so natural challenge that is going to come is a mix of talent required to deliver the services into the future.
