Polaris Q1 net dips 11.2% to Rs 38.3 cr

Company had registered net profit of Rs 43.20 crore in the April-June quarter of the 2013-14 fiscal

Mid-sized IT firm Polaris Financial Technology (Polaris FT) today said its consolidated net profit declined 11.2% to Rs 38.32 crore for the quarter ended June 30.

The Chennai-based firm had registered net profit of Rs 43.20 crore in the April-June quarter of the 2013-14 fiscal, Polaris FT said in a statement.

Its Q1, 2014-15 revenue stood at Rs 600.03 crore as against Rs 566.80 crore in the year-ago period, up 5.8%.

"The challenge during the last quarter has been to strike a balance between investing for growth and managing costs. We have ensured that we continued to generate cash, while ensuring investments to build the base required for each line of business to grow, particularly in the areas of sales and marketing," Polaris FT CFO S Swaminathan said.

The company was able to come out of the drag of exchange losses due to a more stable rupee and the hedging strategy of the company, he added.

"We did some rationalisation of engagements in the Services business, while our products business focused on building the sales and distribution network," Polaris FT CMD Arun Jain said.

Polaris FT, formerly known as Polaris Software Lab Group, posted Rs 455.35 crore in revenues from its services business. It added five new clients in the said quarter taking its active client base to 152.

Its products business (Intellect) saw revenues growing 24% year-on-year to Rs 144.69 crore. It won 12 new deals in Q1 FY'15.

Intellect's first quarter revenues were distributed across geographies with Americas contributing 12%, Europe 28%, India 15% and Rest of the World 45%.

The company's cash and cash equivalents stood at Rs 660 crore as on June 30, 2014.

The Polaris scrip closed at Rs 214.50, down 7.4% from its previous close, on the BSE.