Coforge Q4 net profit drops 45%; full year revenue crosses $1 bn mark

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian IT services provider Coforge Ltd's fourth-quarter revenue and its revenue growth forecast for fiscal year 2024 were roughly in line with analysts estimates, in contrast to weaker-than-expected outlooks from its bigger peers.

Coforge's shares were up 1.4% in midday trading on Thursday, compared with a 0.8% rise in the Nifty IT index, while the benchmark Nifty 50 index was up 0.18%.

The top three Indian IT firms - Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd - have said their U.S. and European clients are delaying closing deals and even cutting back on or cancelling orders due to the turbulent macroeconomic environment.

Infosys' and HCLTech's revenue growth forecasts for the year ending March 2024 were in the single-digit percentage growth range and below market expectations.

However, Coforge said it expects full-year revenue growth of 13% to 16% in constant currency terms, helped by a strong deal pipeline, while analysts were expecting 16% growth, in rupee terms, according to Refinitiv data.

Its fourth-quarter revenue growth of 24.5% to 21.70 billion rupees ($266 million) was also in line with analysts' estimates.

That helped it post fiscal 2023 revenue growth of 22.4%, beating its guidance of 22%.

"Our performance heading in to FY24 sets us up well to deliver robust growth," said Chief Executive Officer Sudhir Singh.

Its consolidated net profit dropped to 1.15 billion from 2.08 billion rupees a year ago due to a 30.4% jump in total expenses, mainly on employee benefits, and a 523 million rupees one-off charge it took due to aborting plans to raise funds due to turbulent U.S. market conditions.

Coforge said its order intake was at $301 million in the quarter, flat from a year ago. ($1 = 81.6490 Indian rupees)

 

(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)