Mastek's Q4 consol PAT at Rs 11.32 cr, down 44% YoY

Lower revenue, higher expense drags bottomline

Mastek reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 11.32 crore in the March quarter, down 44% from same period last year even as the company's other income rose significantly.

Weaker revenue stream mainly from international operations and increased total expenses were the main factors which almost halved the company's bottomline on year-on-year basis.

Mastek provides new technology and IP-led enterprise solutions worldwide with focus mainly on insurance and government verticals.

Consolidated net sales of the company stood at Rs 223.86 crore in the period under review, down 2.4% from corresponding period last year, while the total expense incurred was up 3.15% year-on-year at Rs 220.66 crore.

"The drop in revenue is primarily due to re-prioritization of a North America client as announced earlier," the company said in a statement.

Of the total sales, revenues from international operations, which forms the larger portion of the total revenue basket, were at Rs 209.81 crore down 3.6% on year, while that from domestic market rose 21% to Rs 10.98. The company's other operating income churned Rs 3.07 crore as against Rs 2.83 crore last year.

During the quarter, Mastek added three new clients taking the total client count to 126 in the year ended March, it said.

"There have been good wins both in the government vertical in UK region and

P&C insurance segment in North America," the company quoted Sudhakar Ram group chief executive officer and managing director as saying.

Mastek's other income almost doubled year-on-year to Rs 6.14 crore in the March quarter, while finance cost declined to a meager Rs 900,000 from Rs 12,00,000 year ago.

Sequentially too, the performance was a dismal as net profit fell 38%, while revenues declined 7%.

The company's utilization in the period under review stood at 82.7% as compared to 81.2% in preceding quarter, said Mastek.

The company's total cash and cash equivalent stood at Rs 171.1 crore as on Mar 31, down Rs 54.2 crore from December quarter as it used funds towards buyback of equity shares, it said.

Regarding update on company's share buyback plan, Mastek said it bought back

24,84,007 shares under the scheme for total consideration of Rs 54.17 crore at an average price of Rs 218 per share.