NIIT Tech's Q3 PAT down 52% on forex hit

Forex losses of Rs 13.9 crore due to the pound slipping against the dollar by 18 per cent resulted in a fall of 51.58 per cent in NIIT Technologies’ net profit for Q3 ended December 2008. Profit after tax (PAT) stood at Rs 16.8 crore compared to Rs 34.7 crore in the year-ago period. The company gets 46 per cent of its revenues from Europe and 36 per cent from the US. On a y-o-y basis, the consolidated revenue was 6.2 per cent up at Rs 248.5 crore from Rs 233.8 crore.

Operating margins fell by 105 bps, from 19 per cent to 18 per cent y-o-y. Hedging losses for the period were Rs 18.9 crore and the firm’s current hedging position is $221 million for 30 months. The company has also frozen recruitments and reduced the headcount by 229 in the quarter to 4,438 currently. PAT was down 54 per cent from Rs 36.7 crore in the quarter ended September 2008. For the same time period, revenues were down 3.9 per cent from Rs 258.7 crore.