Mid-sized IT company Persistent Systems today reported a 5.7 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 81.8 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, helped by the digital and intellectual property (IP) businesses.
The Pune-headquartered company had posted a post tax profit of Rs 77.48 crore in the year-ago period.
Total revenue grew 25.9 per cent to Rs 745.5 crore, which the firm attributed to expansion in the digital and IP lines at a faster clip.
Chairman and Managing Director Anand Deshpande said the revenues from IP-related work grew 73.5 per cent and now occupy 28.4 per cent of the overall revenue pie, while digital grew by over 30 per cent.
He said there was an improvement in margins as the company was able to improve its utilisation by over four percentage points to 78.9 per cent.
The attrition stood at over 15 per cent and the total number of employees came down to 9,229 in December from 9,345 in September, he said, adding many of the roles were not replaced leading to a margin advantage.
Asked about growing threat of protectionism, he said the company had started a de-risking strategy over three years ago when it began concentrating on newer businesses beyond the traditional IT work driven by labour arbitrage.
"We believe what matters is the work you do rather than the efforts you take. Efficiency has increased and we are doing more work with fewer people," he said.
The company board today declared an interim dividend of Rs 6 per share as against Rs 5 last year.
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