Training and skills development firm NIIT posted a 50.6 per cent drop in net profit at Rs 7.4 crore for the quarter ended June 2016, impacted by "adverse Q1 performance of an associate company".
Its net profit stood at Rs 15 crore in the year-ago period.
However, the company registered 12 per cent rise in revenues at Rs 260.4 crore in April-June 2016 quarter from Rs 233.2 crore in the year-ago period.
"This quarter reflects that our y-o-y revenue has started picking up real momentum and this is first time in 16 quarters that we registered double digit growth in revenue," NIIT Vice Chairman and MD Vijay Thadani said.
EBITDA grew 36 per cent y-o-y to Rs 22.2 crore in the first quarter, which is a substantial increase from Rs 16.4 crore in the year-ago period, he added.
"PAT (profit after tax) was impacted by exceptional items on profit of an associate company. There was also a small forex loss, at about Rs 2.4 crore on account of our Nigerian subsidiary," he said.
Corporate Learning Group, which accounted for 59 per cent of the company's revenues, registered 19 per cent growth at Rs 152.3 crore.
Skills and Careers Group (SNC) posted revenue growth of 7 per cent to Rs 77.3 crore, while MindChampion Learning Systems registered a net revenue of Rs 30.7 crore during the quarter.
"NIIT is firmly back on the growth path, with a strong focus on leading the industry in each of the business verticals that we are engaged in," he said.
The company aims to play a leadership role in the digital learning world, exploiting new age digital technologies that are impacting every industry and every company, he added.
NIIT added 94 people during the quarter to take its total headcount to 2,466 at the end of June, 2016.
Shares of the company were trading at Rs 86.40, up 2.92 per cent in late afternoon trade on the BSE.
This quarter reflects that NIIT's YoY revenue has started
picking up real momentum, registering a robust growth of 12%, a significant improvement over the more gradual 4%, 5%, 6%, 7% growth increase that was witnessed last year in Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 respectively and the first time in 16 quarters to enter double digits. More importantly, the Go-Forward business Q1 growth (excluding government schools and international geographies already exited) was a robust 15% YoY.
The results were taken on record at the meeting of the Board of Directors here today.
With a strong focus on assuming a leadership role in the Digital Learning World and to further accelerate NIIT's growth and profitability, the company has charted a two-pronged business strategy: firstly an Internal Initiative addressing the Digital Transformation of the entire business model of NIIT and secondly an External Initiative which focuses on training and consulting of individual and corporate customers to enable them to prepare successfully for their digital transformation.
Under the Internal Initiative the company in this quarter has initiated multiple platform based services like a Training Analytics portal and a Global Strategic Sourcing portal in the Corporate Learning Group; just launched its multi-modal online retail training portal in the Skills and Careers Group with strategic eco-system partnerships with edX, Microsoft as well as many other technology vendors, academic institutions and experts. Further, it will soon roll-out a unique B2C learning portal in the School Learning Group. In addition, there is a focused program to digitally transform internal processes of the company across all functions & businesses, interactions with its customers, suppliers and employees.
The External Initiative, on the other hand focuses on
providing training and consulting to individual and corporate customers to help them re-invent themselves & their organisation through Digital Transformation. The key offerings include a new portfolio which aims to groom leaders and managers into Digital Shapers of the future of their companies; StackRoute which focuses on creating Digital Innovators by building an elite breed of Full-stack programmers; DigiNXT which addresses the urgent need to help India's IT Services industry source fresh staff as well as retrain 4 million of their existing staff into Digital Developers with skills in Data Sciences/Analytics, Robotics, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, and so on; and finally NIIT.Tv that aims to create Digital Workers and Digital Citizens by bringing skilling from NIIT classrooms to every digitally connected Indian, for free, at any time and place of their choice to train the masses to evolve their skills and participate productively in the future digital world.
Speaking on the company's performance during the quarter, Mr. Rahul Patwardhan, Chief Executive Officer, NIIT Limited said, "With a 12% YoY revenue increase in Q1, NIIT is firmly back on the growth path, with a strong focus on leading the industry in each of the business verticals that we are engaged in. We aim to play a leadership role in the Digital Learning World, exploiting the exciting new age Digital Technologies that are impacting every industry and every company; and we will do this by preparing as well as re-training a pool of trained professionals armed with Digital Transformation skills to take up challenging assignments in companies & start-ups across the globe.
