HCL Tech Q4 results: IT major’s consolidated net profit has been declared and it has come in at a marginally higher ₹3,986 crore for the quarter versus ₹3,983 crore earlier in the corresponding period last year – a gain of 0.1%. HCL Tech has also announced a 7.1% increase in revenue at ₹28,499 crore against ₹26,606 crore in the year-ago period.
HCL Technologies is India’s No. 3 IT services player after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys.
“HCL Technologies’ Board of Directors has announced the Interim Dividend of ₹18 per equity share of ₹2 each for the financial year 2024-25,” the company’s exchange filing showed. The company has fixed May 7, 2024 as the record date for payment of the interim dividend.
For the financial year 2025, the company forecast a revenue growth of 3%-5%.
HCL Tech attrition rate dropped from 12.8% in Q3 to 12.4% in Q4. The attrition rate had stood at 19.5% in Q4FY23. HCL Tech headcount stands at 227,481 with a net addition of 1,537 individuals. The company also revealed it had added 12,141 freshers.
In his statement, C Vijayakumar, CEO & Managing Director, HCL Tech said, “HCL Tech continues to lead the industry in FY24 with good USD revenue growth of 5.4% YoY during challenging times through our strong commitment to our clients and our people. More importantly, we have translated this growth into even higher value creation for our shareholders with our OCF coming at $2,711 mn, up 21.6% YoY and FCF at $2,584 mn, up 27.7% YoY.”
Even more importantly, looking into the future, Vijaykumar saw growth springing from the artificial intelligence segment, MoneyControl reported. He said, “As we look ahead, global enterprise technology spend will only grow with adoption of AI. We are well positioned to capitalize with our AI led propositions….”
Prateek Aggarwal, Chief Financial Officer, HCL Tech highlighted the company’s “razor-sharp focus on cash generation.”
HCL Tech FY24 performance
* Revenue at ₹1,09,913 crore, growing 8.3%.
* EBIT at 20,027 Cr, up 8.4%.
* Net Income (NI) for the year came in at ₹15,702 crore, up 5.7%
* EPS ₹57.86
* Interim dividend ₹18/share for the quarter (Total is ₹52/share for FY24, which is 90% of the EPS).
* OCF/NI at 143% and FCF/NI at 136%.
* Company’s ROIC up 341 bps YoY at 33.8% and Services’ ROIC up 430 bps YoY at 41.6%
* New deal wins at $2.29 billion, compared with $1.93 billion in the previous quarter and $2.07 billion in the year-ago period.
* Operating margins came in at 17.6%, down 50 bps due to higher wage costs.
HCL Tech shares price closed 1.8% lower at ₹1,477 today on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Notably, while Infosys, Tech Mahindra, TCS, LTIMindtree missed analysts’ estimates, Wipro had actually topped estimates.
Among the reasons that affected performance are decelerating tech spending among clients due to macro-overhang, clients prioritising deals focussed on cost-cutting, and holding back on non-essential spending such as cloud services, consulting and upgrading of existing software. To that was added an uncertain macroeconomic climate and geopolitical uncertainties that kept demand in India’s $254 billion IT industry subdued, Reuters reports.