HCL Info net up 29%

BS 200 SCORECARD

HCL Infosystems announced 29 per cent jump in quarterly net profit to Rs 84.44 crore in the January-March 2006 quarter compared with Rs 65.40 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The board has declared a second quarterly dividend of 100 per cent on equity shares of face value of Rs 2 each.

The company's gross sales for the quarter increased by 60 per cent to Rs 3211.20 crore compared with Rs 2011.82 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Revenue from the computer systems business grew by 27 per cent to Rs 682.21 crore compared with Rs 537 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Profit from the segment, however, fell marginally to Rs 38.58 crore this year compared with Rs 43 crore in the quarter ended March 2006.

"After consistently sustaining leadership in the desktop segment for the last five years, HCL Info is now going for greater momentum into the mobile computing market. It has already set new industry standards in this sector with the launch of the nation's first-ever, segment-specific range of laptops...and there's more to follow," said Ajai Chowdhry.

The telecom and office automation business grew by 72 per cent to Rs 2,525.20 crore compared with Rs 1,466.77 crore last year.

The company's consolidated revenues in the first nine months (July-March) of the financial year stood at Rs 8,302.2 crore. During the first three quarters the net profit stood at Rs 210.3 crore.

With the demand for personal computers expected to rise from 4.5 million units, HCL Infosystems is also setting up a new facility in Uttaranchal.

"We are setting up a big manufacturing facility in Uttaranchal, which can be expanded in keeping with the demand," Chowdhry said. The company recently also scaled the capacity of its existing plant at Pondicherry from 6 lakh to 10 lakh units per year.