TCS net profit surges 50% to Rs 5,333 cr; raises hiring target

Country's largest IT exporter TCS today posted a stellar 50.3 per cent jump in December quarter net profit at Rs 5,333 crore, aided by all-round business growth and a one-time forex gain, while sounding confident of a stronger performance next fiscal.
It had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,550 crore in the third quarter a year ago.
TCS logged a 32.5 per cent rise in October-December 2013 period revenues at Rs 21,294 crore on the back of good traction in life sciences and manufacturing sectors, among others, while improved business in Europe also boosted growth.
The Tata group firm revised its total hiring target for FY14 upwards by 10 per cent. It will end the fiscal with gross hiring of 55,000 people against targeted 50,000. It, however, maintained FY15 guidance of hiring 25,000 campus graduates.

The company's Board of Directors has declared an interim dividend of Rs 4 per equity share of Rs 1 each (face value).
Describing the quarter as a "very good one", TCS Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director N Chandrasekaran said: "Strong international demand for our services and discipline in execution has helped TCS maintain its momentum and post robust growth in volumes as well as realisation."

TCS Chief Financial Officer Rajesh Gopinathan said there was a swing of up to Rs 700 crore arising out of the forex gains, on back of gains of Rs 299 crore during the reporting quarter and a loss of Rs 377 crore in the year ago period.

Chandrasekaran said all the geographies performed well except the domestic market which degrew by 9 per cent on a sequential basis. On the product lines front, asset leverage solutions was the laggard.
He added the company does not expect the domestic market to turnaround before the September 2014 quarter because of the general elections and stressed that he is accounting for that in the optimistic expectations for FY15.
"Initial indications for next fiscal year are very bright. We believe that FY15 is going to be a much stronger year than the current year. We are very positive," he said.
He also described margins above their estimate of 27 per cent. International business grew by 3.8 per cent in dollar terms, he said, adding that attrition stood at 10.9 per cent during the quarter. Utlisation rate, excluding the trainees, touched all time high of 84.3 percent.

Cash and investments book grew by Rs 3,750 crore to Rs 18,850 crore as of end December 31, 2013.
Chandrasekaran said TCS continues to scout for potential acquisition targets and added that Japan, Germany, rest of Europe and the US can be the target geographies.
Analysts termed the numbers as on expected lines, which was visible from the stock performance, which in the run-up to the announcement, which was made after the market hours, was little changed at Rs 2,351.35 down 0.12 per cent on the BSE.
"The numbers are in line with our expectations. The 2.9 per cent volume growth in international business is encouraging. The management is pretty confident of FY15 growth rates being better than FY14," Dipen Shah of Kotak Securities said in a note.