Persistent Q1 net profit up 20.7% y-o-y

Revenue for the quarter at Rs 434.9 cr too logged in a growth of 21.7%

Pune Headquartered IT firm Persistent Systems share price were up almost 5% during intra-day trading as the company reported a growth of 20.7% in its net profit at Rs 68.8 crore from Rs 57 crore in the same period last year. The stock prices corrected and was up 2.14% at the close of the market.

Revenue for the quarter at Rs 434.9 crore too logged in a growth of 21.7% when compared to Rs 357.2 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

"We continue to grow double digit both in terms of revenue and profitability. Our platform based technology strategy is working well and we see rising interest from enterprises to leverage the new technology stack. We launched new releases of our products over the last two quarters which has helped the IP led business to grow over 50% from last year and constitutes 20% of our revenue this quarter," said Anand Deshpande, Chairman and Managing Director, Persistent Systems.

Sequentially though the company's both net profit and revenue were down 2.4% and 2.6% respectively. This was evident in the US dollar numbers too. On a quarter-on-quarter basis revenue was flat at $72.66 million. The company attributed this to change in business mix and shift of more resources to the US.

Currency movement, higher visa cost impacted the firms margin levels. EBIT margin for the quarter was at 16.6% from 21.1% in the previous quarter.

As stated by the company in the past it managed to increase its revenue share from intellectual property and platforms. Revenue from IP led projects was at 20% from 19.6% sequentially and 15.1% in the Q1 of FY14.

During the quarter Persistent acquired assets of Hoonz Planet, a Pune based web discovery solutions provider.

Total employees of the company touched 7,876 at the end of the quarter, with an attrition rate of 14%.