Cognizant India clocks 40% dip in net profit in 2020

Cognizant Technology Solutions India Private Limited reported a 40 per cent fall in net profit last financial year (FY21) compared to the previous financial year (FY20). Expenses went up by 6.5 per cent in FY21, according to financial data accessed by business intelligence platform, Tofler.

Cognizant follows a January-december financial year for its overall business. For the India entity, it has reported numbers for the period April 2020-March 2021.

Revenue for the financial year FY21 was ~29,682 crore, a fall of nearly 5 per cent from the previous year’s figure (FY20). Profit after tax (PAT) fell 40 per cent to ~3,265 crore during FY21. The company’s total expenses for the financial year were ~24,982 crore, up from ~23,452 crore from FY20.

The Nasdaq-listed, New Jersey-based information technology services firm has a sizable workforce in India, and has been grappling with high attrition over the past year.

The IT major also revised its financial year guidance for this year from 10.2 per cent to 11.2 per cent or 9 per cent-10 per cent on a constant-currency basis. It had guided for a growth of 5.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent for CY22 in Q1. It reported full year revenue of $16.7 billion in FY21.

Quarterly attrition rose to 31 per cent in the three months ended June 30, and the firm said it is planning 100,000 lateral hires along with thousands of people at the graduate level this year.

In the second quarter of this year, the company said its voluntary attrition touched 29 per cent on an annualised basis and 18 per cent on a trailing 12-months basis (LTM).