TCS first quarter net profit rises 16.8% to Rs3,831 crore

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country's largest software services provider, today reported a 16.8 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit for the first quarter of the current financial year, at Rs3,831 crore, against a net profit of Rs3,280 crore during the first quarter of the previous financial year.

TCS said it saw strong revenue growth during the April-June 2013-14 quarter backed by foreign exchange earnings and all-round performance across markets, led by the US.

Operating profit grew to Rs4,847 crore, rcording an 18.9 per cent growth year-on-year and a 12 per cent growth compared to the previous quarter.

TCS reported operating margins around 26.9 per cent during the quarter.

The company also declared a dividend per share of Rs4. Earnings per share stood at Rs19.54.

The company added (gross addition) 10,611 professionals and maintained a high utilisation rate of 82.7 per cent (excluding trainees).

TCS, whose customers include Citigroup, BP, and AstraZeneca, said it added two new $100 million clients during the quarter.

''We have delivered another solid quarter, driven by the highest volume growth in the past seven quarters. It has been an all-round performance with strong revenue growth across markets led by the US. Our investments in Europe continue to gain strong traction with customers and helped us deliver industry-leading growth this quarter,'' chief executive and managing director N Chandrasekaran said commenting on the Q1 performance.

''Strong momentum in our business, the right cost structure, a customer-centric approach and our increasing investments in new digital solutions and services positions us well to post another year of strong business growth,'' he added.
 
''The current environment demands an agile operating model that can capture diverse growth opportunities. We continue to execute to plan and invest for growth, while maintaining stability in our margin profile,'' added Gopinathan, chief financial officer.

TCS reported growth across all industry segments, led by life sciences, retail, telecom and BFSI. Growth across IT and other service lines were balanced with assurance, EiS, Global Consulting and asset leveraged solutions in the lead order.

Major markets grew smartly led by the US, Europe and the UK alongside growth in emerging markets like Latin America and Asia Pacific.

During the quarter, TCS closed the acquisition of Alti, one of the top 5 system integrators of SAP solutions in France with several top French corporations in the banking, financial services, luxury, manufacturing and utilities sectors as its key customers.