L&T Infotech net rises 26.7%, announces interim dividend of Rs 15 a share

Mid-size IT services firm Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI) reported a net profit of Rs 456.8 crore, up 26.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 9.7 per cent on a sequential basis, the company said in an exchange filing.
 

Revenue of the Mumbai-headquartered IT services firm rose 16.6 per cent year-on-year to Rs 2,998.4 crore during the period under review. The revenue, too, rose 1.7 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis. The outperformance comes on the back of improvement in business, financial services and insurance (BFSI), and manufacturing verticals.
 

Revenues were at $404.5 million, a 2.3 per cent increase in constant currency terms on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Operating margin of the Larsen & Toubro group company expanded 180 basis points sequentially to 22.9 per cent in the three-month period.

The mid-tier IT firm won one large deal with net new total contract value (TCV) in excess of $40 million in analytics during the quarter ended September, it said.
 

The board also declared an interim dividend of Rs 15 per equity share and fixed October 28 as the record date.
 

"The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has made it apparent that organisations need to reimagine their target operating models embracing digital transformations to remain relevant in the marketplace. This presents tremendous opportunities for companies like us with comprehensive digital transformation capabilities,” said Sanjay Jalona, CEO & managing director, LTI. "Our large deal pipeline remains strong and we see increased traction in digital, cloud and analytics space."
 

The company's headcount rose close to 1,000 employees to 32,455 on a quarter-on-quarter basis. The attrition rate also dropped 170 basis points to 13.5 per cent during the quarter.
 

The numbers were largely in line with Street expectations. Brokerage firm IDBI Capital pegged the profit at Rs 413.2 crore for the quarter, while revenue was seen at Rs 2,961.7 crore.
 

IT services are one of the few sectors that bounced back quickly from the Covid-19 pandemic and shared revenue guidance for the rest of FY21. HCL Tech stuck to its FY21 guidance of 1.5- 2.5 per cent growth in revenue for the remaining quarters of FY21. Infosys also revised its revenue growth guidance upward to 2-3 per cent in constant currency terms for FY21.