Sasken PAT up 86%

Corporate Scorecard

Sasken Communication Technologies has posted 86 per cent jump in its profit after tax (PAT) to Rs 11.7 crore in the fourth quarter of the financial year ended March 31, 2007, compared with the corresponding quarter of 2005-06.

Sasken - a telecom solutions company "� offers a hybrid model of services and products, and works with a network of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), semiconductor vendors, terminal devices OEMs and operators.

Consolidated revenue in the quarter stood at Rs 135 crore, an increase of 73 per cent year-on-year. This is despite the fact that the share of the product business, which the company had been showcasing of late, has just contributed a minuscule 4.6 per cent to the total revenue of Rs 477 crore. Share of products business for the full year was at Rs 22.73 crore, as against Rs 27.5 crore in FY06.

Rajiv Mody, chairman & CEO, Sasken, however, said the company would continue to focus strongly on the product business. "We continue to track our products business on the basis of set milestones. Going forward, we should see Design-Wins (phone launches) happen on the multimedia subsystem product with various customers, including a global tier-1 customer, in the first quarter," Mody added.

Sequentially, consolidated PAT dropped marginally by 1.4 per cent compared with a PAT of Rs 11.88 crore reported in the third quarter of 2006-07. Consolidated revenue increased by 3.3 per cent sequentially compared with Rs 131 crore posted in the third quarter the financial year.

In FY07, Sasken has posted a consolidated profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 44.3, an increase of 93 per cent compared with previous fiscal. The consolidated revenue of the company for the full year at Rs 477 crore, grew by 55 per cent year-on-year. The consolidated earning per share (EPS) went gone up by 73 per cent to Rs 15.75 as against Rs 9.08 in FY06.

Added Mody, "Our focus this year has been to set the platform for profitable growth going forward. We have significantly strengthened our leadership team. We are also firming up plans for entry into some new customer segments, and looking at expanding our offering portfolio."

During the quarter, the company added six new customers taking the total number of its active clients to 84. Revenue contribution from the top five customers stood at 73.6 per cent and from top 10 customers at 86.3 per cent.

The company's cash and cash equivalents as on March 31, 2007 stood at Rs 34.9 crore as compared to Rs 42.5 crore as on December 31, 2006. The debt burden on the company stands at Rs 90 crore.

Sasken's total employee strength as on March 31, 2007 stood at 3,611. This includes a net addition of 107 people during the Q4 of FY06-07.

The company improved the revenue share from Europe to 43 per cent, as compared to 37 per cent in the second quarter of fiscal 2006-07, although the share of North America to the consolidated revenue of the company dropped to 29 per cent, from 35 per cent in the FY05-06.