Sterlite Tech net profit slumps 50 pc to Rs 80 cr in Mar quarter

Data network solutions provider Sterlite Technologies Ltd (STL) on Tuesday posted over 50 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 80.3 crore for the March 2020 quarter, due to prolonged industry challenges and the COVID-19 crisis.

Its net profit had stood at Rs 165.1 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing.

The company, however, struck an optimistic note on future business outlook saying while there could be a delay in demand recovery in the short term, COVID-19 will be an "inflection point" for data networks industry in the medium term.

STL's revenue from operations stood at about Rs 1,160 crore in the fourth quarter of 2019-20, about 35 per cent lower than the corresponding period of the previous year.

"As we start FY21, we have a more robust business. We are seeing an accelerated shift towards digitalisation and data network investments from all our customer segments. The next generation of networks are shifting towards network densification, edge compute, open source and virtualisation," Anand Agarwal, Group CEO, STL, said in a statement.

For the full-year 2019-20, revenue from operations stood at Rs 5,154.4 crore, one per cent higher than 2018-19. The net profit was at Rs 472 crore (before exceptional item) for 2019-20.

The company said that in the short term, there could be a delay in demand recovery, but "in the medium term, this will be the inflection point for data networks industry".

Its board has recommended final dividend of 175 per cent at Rs 3.50 per equity share for 2019-20, subject to shareholders' approval, the statement said.

The company has an order book of over Rs 10,000 crore with diversified global wins, it said.

Sterlite Tech Chief Financial Officer Anupam Jindal told PTI that the COVID-19 impact particularly in the second half of March 2020, coupled with the industry challenges pertaining to China-related impact on optical fibre business, had a bearing on the overall numbers.

"However, with our shift to integrated solution offering, we started to have better mix of customers requiring integrated services...things are going to improve in the long term particularly from the second half of 2020-21 due to digitisation, while short term, due to COVID-19, may remain uncertain," Jindal said.

With its portfolio ranging from optical fibre and cables, network design, and deployment and network software, Pune-based Sterlite Technologies positions itself as integrated solutions provider for global data networks, with optical preform, fibre and cable manufacturing facilities in India, Italy, China and Brazil.