WNS Q2 net drops 18% at $12.6 mn y-o-y

Revenue for the quarter rose 6.2% at $149.8 mn

At a time when Indian IT services players are struggling to maintain single digit growth numbers, business process management firm WNS today revised its annual revenue guidance upwards.

The NYSE listed firm, with headquarters in Mumbai, reported net profit of $12.6 million down 18.7 per cent compared to $15.5 million in the second quarter of FY16. On a sequential basis net profit was up 3.2 per cent from $12.2 million.

Revenue for the quarter rose 6.2 per cent at $149.8 million from $141 million in the consecutive quarter last year. Topline grew 1.2 per cent on sequential basis. These numbers are on GAAP Basis.

The company also upped its full year revenue guidance, revenue less repair payments is expected to be between $551 million and $567 million, up from $531 million in fiscal 2016. This assumes an average GBP to USD exchange rate of 1.24 for the remainder of fiscal 2017.

"WNS continues to deliver strong financial and operating performance, including solid constant currency revenue growth and operating margins. Our underlying business momentum remains healthy, and we are seeing broad-based opportunity across our key service offerings, geographies and verticals," said Keshav Murugesh, WNS's Chief Executive Officer. "While depreciation in the British Pound is pressuring our financials from a currency perspective, to date we have not seen an impact to our core business from Brexit. This includes the new deal pipeline, contract awards, project ramps and volumes with existing clients. Looking forward, WNS expects to leverage our strong balance sheet and to continue our investments in strategic focus areas such as domain expertise, technology-enabled solutions, digital offerings and analytics with the goal of optimizing stakeholder value."

During the quarter WNS added six new clients, and expanded 11 existing relationships. At the end of the September quarter the company's headcount was at 31,719.

"The company has updated our forecast for fiscal 2017 based on current visibility levels and exchange rates," said Sanjay Puria, WNS's Chief Financial Officer. "Our revised guidance for the year reflects growth in revenue less repair payments of 4 per cent to 7 per cent or 10 per cent to 14 per cent on a constant currency basis. We currently have over 98% visibility to the midpoint of the range."