HCL Infosystems to invest Rs 300 cr over 3 yrs

IT firm HCL Infosystems today said it will invest up to Rs 300 crore over the next 2-3 years on consolidating its facilities and expanding its software business.

"We have bought 25 acres land in Greater Noida and the plan is to consolidate our properties which are currently scattered across various units. Also, it will house our software business," HCL Infosystems Chairman and CEO Ajai Chowdhry told reporters here.

The expected investment over the next 2-3 years will be about Rs 200-300 crore and the new units would have a seating capacity of about 5,000 people, he added.

The investment would be funded through internal accruals.

"We had raised funds through QIP last fiscal and we have cash on our balance sheets. The expansion will be funded through that," Chowdhry said.

The company, which announced its results today, has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 67.23 crore for the quarter ended June 30, up 11.27 per cent, compared to Q4 FY09.

Income from operations grew to Rs 3,204.86 crore in June quarter from Rs 3,106.33 crore in the same quarter last year.

For the fiscal ended June 30, HCL's consolidated net profit grew 1.01 per cent at Rs 242.38 crore, while income from operations surged to Rs 12,049.82 crore.

HCL added about 300 people during the quarter, taking its total employee strength to over 6,700 as on June 30, 2010.

Talking about the year ahead, Chowdhry said, "The outlook remains positive. With 3G and BWA services expected to be starting soon, we expect our sales to grow alongwith our Nokia handsets business."

HCL has a distribution agreement with Nokia.

It has proposed a final dividend of Rs two per share for the year ended June 30, 2010. During the year, the company had paid three interim dividends aggregating to Rs 5.50 per share.

The company had cumulative system integration order book position of over Rs 2,000 crore as on June 30, 2010.

The HCL Infosystems scrip closed at Rs 123.10 on the BSE, up 0.61 per cent from previous close.