Thursday October 29, 03:31 AM

Source: Indian Express Finance

Forex losses drag down HCL Tech net to Rs 320 cr

By fe Bureaus
HCL Technologies (HCLTECH.NS : 374.05 -1.8), ranked among the country s top five software services firms, on Wednesday reported a 10% decline in its net profit at Rs 320.1 crore for the quarter ended September 30 compared to the year-ago period. Forex losses, which were almost half of the company s net profit, pulled down HCL Tech s profitability vis- -vis its peers like Infosys Technologies (INFOSYS.BO : 2775.1 0), Wipro (WIPRO.NS : 726.5 -2.45) and TCS, which have reported positive numbers. On a sequential basis, the net profit was down 3.1%. HCL s forex losses during the quarter stood at Rs 151 crore compared to Rs 80 crore in the same period last year. The company, which continues to maintain a cautious approach to the demand situation, reported revenues of Rs 3,031 crore, up 28% on a year-on-year basis and 4.2% sequentially. We definitely believe the worst is behind us, but not de-growth of some of our clients. So, we continue to remain cautious about future, said Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies. The company s share price on the Bombay Stock Exchange (^BSESN : 17578.23 0) closed at Rs 313.50, down 1.91%. The company has decided to only hedge for the next four quarters in future. We have decided to take hedges no more than $500 million in future, which is around our total net flows for two quarters, said CFO Anil Chanana. In line with other IT bigwigs, HCL Tech will give salary increments in the range of 0-10% to both its onsite and offshore employees effective October this year. Chanana said that the salary hikes would lead to a 130 basis point impact on the company s margins for the next two quarters. At the end of the quarter, the company had 54,443 employees.