IT partnerships, acquisitions remain core growth strategy; H2 to be better: HCL Tech

HCL Technololgies stock was under pressure on Wednesday because in the second quarter, it missed street estimates on revenue front due to a USD 20 million negative impact of India biz.

The software firm said the second quarter (July-September) consolidated profit grew 0.8 percent sequentially to Rs 2,188 crore. The company has maintained its full year constant currency revenue growth guidance at 10.5-12.5 percent and EBIT margin guidance at 19.5-20.5 percent, but has raised full year dollar revenue guidance to 12.1-14.1 percent from 11.3-13.3 percent earlier.

CNBC-TV18's Kritika Saxena caught up with the CEO C Vijayakumar & CFO Anil Chanana.

Vijayakumar said to put the whole numbers in perspective, one should look at the first half numbers, where revenues grew 11.7 percent compared to same period last year. Also the booking performance in H1FY18 was significantly better than H1FY17, so H2 is expected to better, he said.

Talking about the weak India business and the outlook going forward, Vijayakumar said their India strategy would to be selective but would participate wherever there is value. According to him, this overhang of India business may continue in Q3, Q4 but only marginally, adding that they have taken this into account in their guidance.

Chanana said organic growth would range between 5-7 percent.

Vijayakumar said, most importantly IT partnerships and acquisitions are core part of the growth strategy and the company has been achieving this by ensuring stable margins. Given the current landscape in the market, they would look at opportunities in digitial, cloud, he said.