IT majors trust PSU banks more

Global economic crisis and Satyam fiasco may have hit the Indian IT sector hard, but the four leading software exporters — TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech — are sitting on a cash pile of over four billion dollars, majority of which they have moved to public sector banks.

Probably, after the concerns emanating from Satyam founder and the then Chairman B Ramalinga Raju’s disclosure about cooking up books for several years, most of the IT companies have started disclosing the whereabouts of their cash reserves.

Together, the four leading IT firms have about Rs 20,000 crore of cash and equivalents as on December 31, 2008.

Infosys has the highest cash among peers in its books which stands at Rs 9,686 crore, mainly as deposits with domestic banks. It is followed by Wipro with Rs 5,855 crore, TCS with Rs 2,163 crore and HCL Technologies at Rs 2,033 crore ($416.1 million ). Also, Infosys has parked its largest chunk of reserves with State Bank of India (Rs 2,000 crore). Besides, it has close to Rs 1,000 crore with HDFC and about Rs 260 crore with HDFC bank.

“About 67 per cent of our portfolio is kept in nationalised banks in India,” Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan said.The disclosure by Infosys shows a clear migration of deposits from Indian private sector banks such as Axis Bank, ICICI Banks and HDFC to public sector banks. A total of over Rs 1,400 crore (Rs 250 from Axis Bank, Rs 990 crore from ICICI bank, Rs 190 from HDFC bank) has been withdrawn from private sector banks.

The country’s top software exporter TCS also has cash and fund investments to the tune of about Rs 2,163 crore, even after the acquisition of Citi Global Services Ltd.

“During the quarter (ended December 31, 2008) we moved a considerable part of our funds to fixed deposits with the Indian and foreign banks of proven rating,” TCS CFO S Mahalingam said.

The third largest software exporter Wipro had a cash reserve of Rs 5,855 crore deposited in banks and held in various other instruments, as on December 31, 2008.

The company’s highest deposits are with HDFC Bank at Rs 634 crore, followed by the State Bank of India Rs 573 crore. IT major HCL Technologies had also moved a bulk of its cash out of the mutual funds to the safety of public-sector bank deposits.

Disclosing the whereabouts of its cash and cash equivalent as well as treasury investments worth about 416.1 million dollar (Rs 2,033 crore), HCL Tech said a large chunk of these were parked with PSU banks in India. “Bulk of the money has been moved from mutual funds to fixed deposits largely with the public sector banks,” HCL Technologies Executive Vice-President (Finance) Anil Chanana has said.

The company has 54 million dollar with the SBI, 51.3 million dollar in HDFC Bank and 20.5 million dollar in Canara Bank. However, the cash reserve of Rs 20,000 crore is despite the fact that the Indian IT firms have aggressively made big acquisitions, which have drawn down their kitty.

Wipro had acquired Citi Technology Services for 127 million dollar (about Rs 620 crore )in all cash deal. TCS would have seen a dent in its cash reserve after the acquisition of Citi Group Global services for $ 512 million dollar.

(about Rs 2,501 crore). However, HCL’s 441-million pound (Rs 3,144 crore) acquisition of Axon was funded mainly through debt, leaving its cash reserve intact.