WNS Q3 net income down 23%

Business process outsourcing major WNS reported a 23% decline in net income at $5.45 million (approximately Rs 21.7 crore at a conversion of Rs 39.54 per dollar) for the third quarter ended December 31, 2007 when compared with $7.09 million (around Rs 27.6 crore) in Q3FY07.

Revenue increased 13.4% to $115.6 million (around Rs 457.08 crore) from $101.9 million (around Rs 402.9 crore) in Q3FY07.

The company had reported a net loss of $10.5 million (around Rs 41.5 crore) for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 due to a one-time impairment charge of $15.5 million (Rs 61.2 crore) in respect of goodwill and intangible assets and costs related to the continued redeployment of resources associated with the bankruptcy of First Magnus Financial Corporation (First Magnus).

Giving its guidance for fiscal 2008, the company is expecting revenue, less repair payments, to be between $290-295 million, which is in line with the company's previous guidance. Net income (excluding share-based compensation and related fringe benefit taxes, amortization and impairment of goodwill and intangible assets) is expected to be between $34-36 million. This represents an increase of $1 million from the company's previous guidance of $33-35 million.

Neeraj Bhargava, group chief executive officer, WNS, said: "We are targeting better-than-expected profits for the year due to expansion of current client relationships, accelerated growth of our analytics services businesses and an ability to control costs, which have allowed us to weather pressure from currency appreciation and declines in mortgage revenue."