HCL Technologies has reported a 14.81% growth in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, to ₹2,534 crore and expressed confidence in meeting the revenue forecast of 9.5%-11.5% for the current fiscal.

The firm, which has registered a net profit of ₹2,207 crore in the year-ago period, saw a growth of 19.5% in revenue to ₹14,861 crore in the quarter (₹12,434 crore)

“We continue to deliver strong and consistent quarter-on-quarter revenue and margin growth performance... We continue to maintain strong deal win momentum. We signed 17 transformational deals across verticals and geographies,” president and CEO C. Vijayakumar said.

On a sequential basis, the company registered 7% growth in revenue and 5.7% growth in net profit. In dollar terms, the net profit rose 5.1% to $356.7 million year-on-year and the revenue was higher by 8.9% to $2.09 billion.

The deals signed during the quarter were a mix of Mode 1 and Mode 2 services led by areas such as digital and analytics, cloud, Internet of Things, cybersecurity, along with infrastructure services, engineering and R&D services, and business services. Mr. Vijayakumar said the company’s revenue from Mode 3 (IP-led businesses) achieved a milestone of $1 bn on annual run rate basis.

Mr. Vijayakumar said: “Given the deal bookings and the momentum that we are seeing, we will continue to see incrementally better growth in the rest of the year. That is something we are very confident of... we are likely to be in the mid-point of our guidance range,” he said.

The firm had earlier said it expected its revenue in FY19 to grow 9.5-11.5% in constant currency terms.

Outlook positive

The outlook from the demand perspective was positive, he said. “In the U.S., there is significant amount of discretionary spend which is picking up and we are benefiting from that,” he added.

The growth momentum was driven by technology and services, Lifesciences and Healthcare and Retail & CPG at 11.1% (on last 12 months year-on-year constant currency basis). HCL Technologies board has recommended a dividend of ₹2 per share. The company added 11,683 people (gross) during the quarter with total headcount at 1,27,875 at the end of September quarter. The attrition for IT services on the last 12 months’ basis during the quarter was at 17.1%. Americas accounted for over 65% of the company’s revenue during the quarter, while Europe and rest of the world contributed 26.8% and 7.4% respectively.