NIIT Technologies Q3 Net drops 9.2 per cent to Rs 48.2 crore

NEW DELHI: NIIT Technologies on Wednesday reported a 9.2% drop in fiscal third-quarter net profit compared with a year earlier. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, however, profit rose more than 20% to Rs 48 crore in the October-December period. Revenue grew 1.4% from a year earlier and 1.2% from the previous quarter to Rs 595 crore.

The mid-size IT firm said its operating profit rose 4.9% to Rs 86 crore sequentially, helped by improved operating margins, higher other income and lower depreciation. “Operating margins improved by 51 bps (basis points) sequentially to 14.5% as a result of productivity initiatives,” said CEO Arvind Thakur.

The company won new orders worth $109 million in the past quarter, with 55% of new business coming from the company’s biggest market, the US, including a large engagement with an insurance major, said chief operating officer Sudhir Chaturvedi.

While there was still some continued softness in the insurance business in the Americas, the deal pipeline looked better than the previous quarter, the company said.

“NIIT Tech continues to undergo the transition through increasing the share of international services business albeit the progress continues to remain slow,” said Emkay Global in a note. The company’s overall headcount at the end of the December quarter was 8,059, down from 8,288 in the previous quarter. NIIT Technologies added five new customers in the quarter, two in the US and one each in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Asia-Pacific and India.