Patni Computer Services posted net profit (India GAAP) of Rs 146.7 crore for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010 (the company follows Jan-December calendar), up 7.9 per cent from Rs 135.9 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The company had a mark-to-market foreign exchange gain of $ 4.3 million (Rs 19.76 crore).
Revenue for the quarter dipped 2.1 per cent at Rs 762.8 crore from Rs 779.8 crore in the same quarter last year.
Sequentially (quarter on quarter), the company’s net profit was down 6.6 per cent from Rs 157 crore—and revenue dipped 2.4 per cent from Rs 781.6 crore.
The numbers were impacted as the company witnessed project delays in its insurance and business process outsourcing (BPO) portfolio. Net profit was impacted due to salary compensations given to employees in the April quarter.
“While there is a general improvement in demand environment predictability and sustainability of growth is still challenging. We experienced the same in current quarter as some of the projects starts were behind expected schedules in our portfolio. Inorganic efforts are expected to pick pace and will result in higher growth going forward as we remain bullish on our overall prospects to scale the business,” said Jeya Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, Patni.
The company for its third quarter (July-September) has guided for revenue in the range of $176 million to $177 million and net income (Excluding the hedging Gain/Loss) is expected to be in the range of $22.5 million to $23 million.
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Kumar also added that the company is chasing a few deals in the $25 million and higher range. “We are pursuing larger deals than we did a couple of quarters back. We are hopeful of closing more than one deal in the $25 million range in this quarter,” he added.
The company’s gross margins at 35 per cent had a negative impact of around 2.3 per cent on account of compensation increase and 1.3 per cent due to planned lower utilisation sequentially.
The net employee addition for the quarter was 934, taking the total headcount to 14,893. The attrition for the quarter was 21.5 per cent, higher compared to 17.7 per cent in the previous quarter.