HCL Technologies Q4 Profit Rises 11% To Rs 3,983 Crore

IT company HCL Technologies on Thursday posted a 10.85 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,983 crore in the fourth quarter of financial year ended March 2023.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 3,599 crore in the same period a year ago. HCL Technologies' profit, however, declined on quarter-over-quarter basis by about 3 per cent from Rs 4,096 crore -- its highest ever profit in any quarter.

The company's revenue from operations rose by about 18 per cent to Rs 26,606 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 22,597 crore in the March 2022 quarter. However, sequentially, its revenue declined marginally from Rs 26,700 it reported in the third quarter.

For the year ended March 31, 2023, HCL Technologies' profit increased by 10 per cent to Rs 14,845 crore from Rs 13,499 crore in the same period a year ago. Its annual consolidated revenue from operations crossed Rs 1 lakh crore. The company's annual revenue increased by 18.45 per cent to Rs 1,01,456 crore at the end of 2022-23 from Rs 85,651 crore a year ago.

"We crossed Rs 100,000 crore in revenues for the first time. Thanks to 2.25 lakh HCL Techies across the world who have contributed in making this Rs 1,00,000 crore happen in this fiscal year," HCL Tech CEO and MD C Vijayakumar said. 

Europe was the top-performing market for HCL with 20.5 per cent CC growth during the year, followed by the Americas with 14.4 per cent and the rest of the world grew 11 per cent. In terms of constant currency, HCL Technologies' revenue grew 13.7 per cent. The company expected the revenue growth to be in the range of 13.5-14 per cent in constant currency terms.

HCL Tech services grew 15.8 per cent during the year in CC terms while software services grew 1.8 per cent. HCLTech software business clocked an annual recurring revenue rate of $1 billion, about Rs 8,000 crore, during the year, Vijayakumar said. 

It has reduced revenue growth guidance for the current fiscal in the range of 6-8 per cent on a year-over-year (YoY) basis in constant currency (CC) and EBIT (Earnings before interest and taxes) in the range of 6.5-8.5 per cent CC. "While there are a lot of dynamics externally, we have some comfort to navigate this dynamic market because of the mix of capabilities and expertise in the service offerings we have," Vijayakumar said. 

The company clocked an EBIT of 14.1 per cent in the financial year (FY) 2022-23. The total headcount of the company stood at 2,25,944 at the end of FY23. HCL Technologies recorded an attrition of 19.5 per cent. Its net hiring was 3,674 during the report and the gross hiring of freshers was 4,480. 

The company, however, remained muted on hiring plans for the current fiscal. HCL Tech Chief People Officer Ramachandran Sundararajan said that the attrition level is expected to decline based on the present trend. The company will factor in attrition trends and the capacity that it has built up in the last two quarters, he added.

"The total fresher addition for the year was 26,734 that shy of the 30,000 aspirational number that we were working towards. But the good thing is that we honoured all the offers that we made. We onboarded everybody without having to make any delays," Sundararajan said. He said that the company has a quarterly rolling plan for hiring, which allows it to make adjustments as per the requirement.