Nation’s 5th largest software exporter Tech Mahindra logs 14% profit rise

MUMBAI: India’s fifth largest software exporter Tech Mahindra on Monday reported a 14 per cent rise in its December quarter net at Rs 856 crore, fuelled by a faster revenue growth driven by non-us markets. The Mahindra group company had reported a post tax net of Rs 751.3 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 644.7 crore in the September quarter. Total revenue rose 12.8 per cent to Rs 7,558 crore on an annual basis, and at a lower 5.4 per cent over the preceding quarter.

The pre-tax profit margin rose an anaemic 0.80 per cent to 15.7 per cent on increase in revenues but was restricted by cross-currency headwinds, higher furloughs with telecom sector clients and higher percentage of people deployed onsite, chief financial officer Milind Kulkarni said. The ₹rest of the world’ revenues grew 13.4 per cent to now occupy 23.9 per cent of the pie, the European market inched up 2.9 per cent, while the topline growth in the traditional market of the US which is turning increasingly protectionist was only a paltry 0.7 per cent, Managing Director C P Gurnani said.

Vice-chairman Vineet Nayyar acknowledged the threat posed by the Donald Trump administration, but termed the looming challenges as a “nuisance” which will not “disorient” the nimble IT sector. “I don’t see major disruptions for the tech sector. It is a nuisance which will have bureaucratic hurdles,” he added.

Gurnani said the US needs smart intellectual capital to solve their problems and underscored the need for a dialogue between the IT sector and the new administration. Over 3,500 of its 1.17 lakh employees are based in the US, and 35 per cent of them are locals.

The utilisation and attrition levels were broadly unchanged at 77 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively. The company added 12 clients during the reporting quarter and Gurnani said the project pipeline looks “reasonably good” even though there are fears of the macro environment affecting the deal fructification.

Techm added cash of Rs 950 crore during the reporting quarter, taking the total cash/equivalents to Rs 4,951 crore as of end December. Gurnani also expressed satisfaction with the way all the three acquisitions of last calendar year have played out. The Techm counter closed 1.06 per cent up at Rs 471.70 apiece on the BSE, against a 0.12 per cent correction in the benchmark.

Meanwhile, realty portal MagicBricks on Monday posted 43 per cent rise in revenue at Rs 37 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal. Magicbricks’ revenue stood at Rs 96.6 crore in the first nine months of this fiscal, the portal said in a statement.

Magicbricks.com is owned by Magicbricks Realty Services Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Times Internet Ltd, the digital arm of The Times of India Group. The company said that these figures are online revenues from operations and do not include any group company revenues.

“While there has been shortterm pressure on the pace of growth post demonetisation, the impact was offset by a series of initiatives across product innovation, traffic growth, channel initiatives and partnership alliances,” Magicbricks said in a statement.

“The company further plans to grow by launching a series of new business lines around commercial real estate, the rental segment as well as by integrating products such as home loans, movers and packers and assisted selling services on its platform,” it added.

Based on the third quarter revenue figures, the company claimed that it is now 25-30 per cent bigger than its closest competitor, with a trend of continuous market share gains. The quarter saw a slew of product innovations led by launch of an innovative ₹experience centre’, revamp of a popular pricingdiscovery app called as Propworth and launch of new B2B apps for the broker community among others.

The company attributed its strong Q3 performance to mar- ket-deepening initiatives led by a Dream Home Festival conducted in the pre-diwali festival season. Magicbricks and State Bank of India also recently announced a partnership to create India’s largest Home Fest to be conducted in February.

Info Edge, which owns online job portal Naukri, today reported over 76 per cent increase in standalone net profit to Rs 47.1 crore for the December quarter of the current fiscal. It had posted net profit of Rs 26.7 crore in the Octoberdecember period of last fiscal, it said in a statement.

The company’s total income from operations stood at Rs 186 crore in the quarter under review, up 12 per cent from Rs 175.8 crore in the October-december period of 2015-16. Recruitment solutions grew by about 13 per cent, while the real estate vertical was up 9 per cent over the year-ago period.

“As a result of our revenue growing profitably, our operating EBITDA for this quarter has grown by 58 per cent year-on-year and the first nine months operating EBITDA growth is 91 per cent. We have been benefiting from an efficient growth in our businesses,” Info Edge Chief Financial Officer Chintan Thakkar said.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 863.25 apiece, up 2.14 per cent, on the BSE.

The IT company’s ₹rest of the world’ revenues grew 13.4% to now occupy 23.9% of the pie, the European market inched up 2.9%, while topline growth in the traditional US market, which is turning increasingly protectionist, was only a paltry 0.7%