In December quarter, IT services company TCS has reported an 11 per cent rise net profit to ₹ 10,846 crore. Its overall revenue rose 19.1 per cent to ₹ 58,229 crore. On the new deals front, the company reported a total contract value of USD 7.9 billion for the quarter, which is in the mid-range of the target of USD 7-9 billion. The company’s board also declared a dividend payout of ₹ 75 per share, including a special dividend of ₹ 67 per share, which will result in an outflow of ₹ 33,000 crore in cash.
Its chief executive and managing director Rajesh Gopinathan told that it is more confident about the North American and British operations, which account for two-thirds of its revenues, but there are short-term uncertainties, and it is Europe, which needs closer monitoring as geopolitical tensions restrict clients from making IT spends. Mr Gopinathan attributed the revenue growth during the quarter to cloud spending by clients and made it clear that its clients are not affected by the overall trend of relook by companies on hyperscalers.
Chief financial officer Samir Seksaria said third-party costs and increasing costs arising out of the normalcy of operations impacted the profit margins and added that it will exit FY23 with an operating profit margin of 25 per cent, which is at par with what it ended FY22.
The company reported a marginal decline in its employee base, but made it clear that it will hire up to 1.50 lakh people next fiscal. Its overall staffing declined by 2,197 people to 6.13 lakh employees, making it the first quarterly decline in many years. The decline was a result of the overall number of people leaving the company being higher than the number of new hires from campuses and laterals, its chief human resources officer Milind Lakkad said.
It has hired 42,000 freshers in the first three-quarters of the fiscal, and may hire a few thousand more in the last quarter, he said, adding that it will continue the trend of hiring 40,000 freshers in FY24, while Mr Gopinathan said it will hire 1.25-1.50 lakh people in FY24 as well.
