HCL Technologies Shares Tumble 7 Percent After Q3 Net Profit Dips

Shares of HCL Technologies on Monday tumbled 7 per cent after the company reported a 13.6 per cent fall in net profit for the December 2021 quarter. The stock tanked 6.99 per cent to Rs 1,244 on the BSE. At the NSE, it declined 7 per cent to Rs 1,243.40.

IT firm HCL Technologies on Friday reported a 13.6 per cent fall in net profit to Rs 3,442 crore for the December 2021 quarter and said it expects to see a strong deal pipeline on the back of a robust demand environment. The company had logged a net profit of Rs 3,982 crore in the October-December 2020 quarter (as per US GAAP).

Its revenue grew 15.7 per cent to Rs 22,331 crore in December 2021 quarter from Rs 19,302 crore in the year-ago period. The company explained that the profit after tax (PAT) in the third quarter of FY21 was higher by USD 59.4 million (Rs 438 crore) due to the reversal of a prior year's tax provision due to a change in the method of calculating a tax deduction, basis evaluation of judicial rulings.

HCL Technologies Chief Financial Officer Prateek Aggarwal said that excluding this, PAT was lower by 2.9 per cent in December 2021 quarter year-on-year in rupee terms. "It's basically three things - one is the seasonality, the leaves taken by people during this quarter because of the festive season. Second is the increments we gave out this quarter...third is the cost of attrition and backfilling people at a higher cost, targeted retention costs, higher recruitment costs and others," he told reporters.

(PTI)