Posting a 50 per cent jump in net profit for the July-September quarter, the country's fifth largest software exporter
HCL Technologies on Tuesday expressed confidence the ongoing October-December quarter will be one of the best for the sector in terms of the number of deals.
HCLT posted a 50 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 496.7 crore for the first quarter ended September 30, 2011, compared to Rs 331.1 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
Its revenues stood at Rs 4,651.3 crore during the reporting quarter, up 25.4 per cent from Rs 3,708.1 crore in Q1, FY'11. HCLT follows a July-June fiscal year.
MUST READ:
How AXON is putting HCL Tech in the big league "We have doubled our quarterly revenues in just three years to record a billion dollar quarter despite the tough economic environment," HCLT Vice-Chairman and CEO
Vineet Nayar said.
While maintaining a cautious outlook, the company said a number of deals are expected to come up for renewal and restructuring in the October-December quarter.
Citing a TPI report, Nayar said the total size of deals on offer in this quarter could be as large as $8 billion.
MUST SEE:
Vineet Nayar's leadership style "Overall, IT budgets have been down for some time and the economic environment looks bleak. The activity is now around churn. Clients were unhappy and they are looking to change their vendors, which throws up more opportunities for companies like us," Nayar said.
He added that demand would be driven by companies in continental Europe, who are looking for vendor partners with a global presence.
"A lot of these companies in continental Europe had contracts with local players. With emerging geographies now becoming an important growth engine, these companies want to partner vendors who have a global presence," he said.
The deals are expected to be in the $100-500 million range, he added.
Shares of the company, however, reacted adversely to the results -- which some marketmen labelled below market expectations -- and fell by 8.53 per cent to Rs 401.35 apiece in late afternoon trade on the BSE.
"HCLT's results were marginally below estimates. Volume growth was in line with estimates. In constant currency terms, the growth in revenues was at 5.1 per cent. Margins were slightly lower than our expectations. Margins were down Q-o-Q because of higher salary costs," Kotak Securities Head (Fundamental Research) Dipen Shah said.
Shares of peer TCS also slipped 8.06 per cent to Rs 1,029.50 in late afternoon trade on the BSE.
Tata Consultancy Services, which announced its results after the bourses closed on Monday, said its net profit rose by 6.1 per cent in the second quarter to Rs 2,301 crore from Rs 2,169.21 crore in the same period last year.
Special 
