Hedging losses pull HCL net down 10%

Delhi-based HCL Technologies today posted a 10.1 per cent fall in its year-on-year net income for the quarter ended September 30, owing to hedging losses of Rs 155.4 crore. Net income for the quarter stood at Rs 320.1 crore, compared with Rs 355.9 crore in the corresponding quarter a year earlier.

Revenues for the quarter, at Rs 3,031.4 crore, were up 28.9 per cent year-on-year compared with Rs 2,351.7 crore.

“We have accelerated growth in infrastructure services, custom applications, telecom, media, retail and financial services, besides gaining market share in the US and Europe,” said Vineet Nayar, CEO.

Sequentially, net income fell 3.1 per cent from Rs 330.1 crore in the trailing quarter and net revenues rose 4.2 per cent from Rs 2,908.5 crore. The company posted a foreign exchange gain of Rs 5 crore in the quarter. It currently has $725 million (around Rs 3,418 crore) in forex hedges and doesn’t plan to make any new ones.

Net addition of headcount in IT services was 665, with a quarterly voluntary attrition of about 12 per cent. The total headcount was 54,443 at the end of September.

HCL Tech added 28 new clients in the quarter and its repeat business stood at 93.7 per cent.

The company has given wage hikes of up to 10 per cent effective from October 1, which will hurt its gross margins by 130 basis points over the next two quarters.

“Infrastructure services has been the key growth driver, delivering a 14-plus per cent sequential growth. Large deals in the infrastructure space which were signed earlier in the year seem to be delivering results. In our view, operational improvements at HCLT can help somewhat buffer margin headwinds from flexible pricing for some more time,” said an analyst from CLSA India.

HCL Tech’s stock fell 1.9 per cent to close at Rs 313.5 on the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex.