Tata Consultancy Services Q3 net up 18.26% at Rs 2,802.77 cr

MUMBAI: The country's largest software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services on Wednesday reported an 18.26 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,802.77 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011.

In the year-ago period, the company had recorded a net profit of Rs 2,301 crore, TCS said in a filing to the BSE.

The company's total income stood at Rs 13,203.99 crore in the reporting quarter, as against Rs 9,663.35 crore in the corresponding year-ago period, translating into a growth of 36.63 per cent.

"Our customer-centric approach in the market and execution rigour on the ground enabled TCS to post a strong financial performance in this quarter. Growth has been broad-based, with all markets and all industries contributing substantially," TCS CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran said.

Among mature markets, Europe led the growth in TCS's business, with an 18.1 per cent sequential jump in revenues, followed by the US (13.3 per cent) and UK (9.5 per cent).

Latin America business saw significant expansion, with an 18.6 per cent surge in revenues on a sequential basis, followed by India (14.8 per cent) and the Asia-Pacific region (15.7 per cent).

"We continue to focus on managing our operations optimally in the face of increased external volatility. We have increased our operating margins significantly by taking benefits of the growth, exchange movements and by keeping a strong focus on cost management," TCS CFO S Mahalingam said.

The company added 18,907 (gross) and 11,981 (net) employees during the quarter, taking its total headcount to 2,26,751 employees as of December 31, 2011. The rate of attrition fell to 12.8 per cent during the quarter.

"Attrition continued to fall for the second quarter in a row to 12.8 per cent as TCS remained the employer of choice in a dynamic market. We continue to hire in line with business demand trends," TCS Executive Vice-President and Global HR Head Ajoy Mukherjee said.

Shares of the company, on Tuesday closed with a modest loss, as investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of the company's third quarter results.

The company's shares fell by as much as 1.11 per cent intra-day, but recouped some of the losses and settled 0.28 per cent lower at Rs 1,104.30 a piece on the BSE. On the NSE, TCS settled with a loss of 0.37 per cent at Rs 1,105.25.

Market experts said the fall in the company stock was largely due to profit-booking ahead of the quarterly results.

Besides, some recovery in the rupee also contributed to the decline, as a stronger currency makes exports less competitive, experts said.