India’s largest IT services company TCS on Thursday reported an 11.95 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 12,380 crore in the December quarter while the overall workforce reduced by over 5,000 employees.
The Tata Group company had reported a net profit of Rs 11,058 crore in the year-ago period, and Rs 11,909 crore in the preceding September quarter.
The company’s revenue grew 5.6 per cent to Rs 63,973 crore as against Rs 60,583 crore a year earlier. However, it was down from Rs 64,259 crore in the September quarter.
New order bookings came at USD 10.2 billion in what is termed as a seasonally challenging quarter due to the holiday season.
Chief Executive K Krithivasan said the new orders were across industries, geographies and service lines, which lends a “good visibility to long-term growthâ€.
He said the banking, financial services and insurance, along with consumer businesses are returning to growth and there are early signs of a revival in discretionary spend in some verticals.
These two trends, along with continuing strong growth in regional markets makes the company confident for the future, he added.
The operating profit margin came at 24.5 per cent as against 24.1 per cent in the quarter-ago period, but still lower than the aspirational bracket.
The overall workforce reduced by over 5,000 employees during the three months under review, and the overall base stood at 6.07 lakh as of December this year. The IT services attrition stood at 13 per cent.
Chief Human Resources Officer Milind Lakkad said campus hirings are going according to plan and the company is preparing to onboard a higher number of campus hires next year.
The company board announced a dividend of Rs 76 per share, including a special dividend of Rs 66 per share.
TCS also announced the acquisition of land bank in Bengaluru from a Tata Group company for Rs 1,625 crore.
The TCS scrip closed 1.72 per cent down at Rs 4,036.65 apiece on the BSE on Thursday, as against a 0.68 per cent correction on the benchmark.
