Tech Mahindra first-quarter profit rises beats estimates

REUTERS - Tech Mahindra Ltd, India's fifth biggest software services exporter, reported a better than expected 7 percent rise in first-quarter profit on Monday, helped by new clients for its digital services business.

The company said it added 21 active clients in the three months to the end of June, taking the total active client count to 864.

Its profit for the period was 7.99 billion rupees ($125 million) up from 7.49 billion last year. Sales rose about 8 percent to 77.47 billion rupees with revenue from its IT division some 7 percent higher at 68.63 billion rupees. http://bit.ly/2uQ0PRd

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 6 billion rupees, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data showed.

The company's IT attrition rate for the last 12 months ending June 30 fell to 17 percent from 21 percent in June 2016.

Tech Mahindra's close rival HCL Technologies Ltd reported an 8 percent rise in profit in the three months to the end of June last week, also beating analysts' estimates.

($1 = 64.1500 rupees)

(Reporting by Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; editing by David Clarke)