L&T Technology Services on Tuesday posted a 5% increase in September quarter net profit at Rs 315.4 crore but lowered its revenue growth guidance for the current fiscal. The engineering services company had reported a net profit of Rs 300 crore in the year-ago period.
Its revenue grew 4.6% to Rs 2,386.5 crore from the year-ago period’s Rs 2,281.7 crore. The same stood at Rs 2,301.4 crore in the quarter-ago period.
L&T Technology Services’ CEO and Managing Director Amit Chadha said the slower revenue growth is due to integration with an acquired entity, and added that the growth would have been 16% if not for the integration.
However, he said the company is revising down the revenue growth guidance to 17.5-18.5% on a constant currency basis for FY24 as a prudential measure given the current economic uncertainties.
He said the deal pipeline is strong, and the company had bagged seven large engagements worth over $10 million each in the September quarter, and three already into the third quarter. The company expects to sign a few more deals in the current quarter and will revisit the guidance at the end of the December quarter.
Overall, the company is “cautiously optimistic” about the near-term future, Chadha said, adding that the looming threat of an escalation in the Israel-Palestine conflict and an ongoing strike in the key industry of automobiles in the US makes it a bit circumspect.
The operating profit margin increased to 17.1% in the September quarter as against 16.6% in the year-ago period despite the pay hikes, Chadha said, adding that it deployed other revenue levers to expand the number.
The company added 500 employees on a net basis to take its overall strength to 23,880, and Chadha said it has onboarded 1,000 freshers so far this fiscal.
Further, he said it will train close to 2,000 employees to cater to its new focus areas of software-defined vehicles, artificial intelligence, and cyber security.
The company’s shares closed 1.57% down at Rs 4,615.45 apiece on the BSE on Tuesday as against gains of 0.39% on the benchmark.
Edited by Suman Singh
