HCL Tech Q2 net profit rises 16.3%

• IT services company HCL Technologies Ltd on Thursday posted a 16.3 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 332.9 crore for the second quarter ended December 2007, as the company logged volume growth and increase in billing rates.
  In rupee terms, its revenue was up 24 per cent year-on-year at Rs 1,816.6 crore while the sequential growth was pegged at 6.3 per cent. In dollar terms, the revenue at $461 million was up 39.2 per cent year-on-year and 7.4 per cent sequentially, while the net profit at $84.5 million was up 30.6 per cent over corresponding period of the previous year and 9.1 per cent over the first quarter.
• HCL, which added 29 new clients during the quarter, saw gross margin improvement at 38 per cent compared to 37 per cent in the first quarter and 37.8 per cent in the year-ago period.
• As of December 2007, the company bought forward covers worth $2.3 billion spread over the next 10 quarters.
  Revenue from the consolidated IT services (core software and infrastructure services) grew 24.9 per cent year-on-year during the second quarter to Rs 1,598.2 crore. Its business process outsourcing services revenue grew 17.5 per cent on year to Rs 218.4 crore, but was down from Rs 219.8 crore in the previous quarter, mainly on account of a loss of a customer. The company registered 2,312 net additions in headcount increasing the total number of its employees to 48,000 at the end of December.
  The shares of HCL Tech were down 0.28 per cent on the BSE at Rs 267.60, over the previous close of Rs 268.35.