Mindtree shares 'uprooted'
Shares of mid-cap consulting-driven IT firm Mindtree are down over 5% at Rs. 1,417, as the company has declared poor set of numbers for the third quarter ended 31st December 2013, after market hours yesterday. Shares had made a low of 1,395 in opening trade.
Company’s Q3FY14 net profit was down 31% sequentially to Rs. 89 crore, from Rs. 129 crore in Q2FY14, main culprit being forex loss of Rs 27 crore, versus forex gain of Rs. 20 crore in Q2FY14. Although Q3 revenue grew 2.5% QoQ in dollar terms and 2.7% in rupee terms to Rs. 791 crore, EBIT margin contracted by 30% to 14.5% in Q3, from 21.4% in Q2. Its key business segments such as Hitech and Manufacturing witnesses operating margin erosion of 3-4%, although the lower margin BFSI segment witnessed some improvement from 4.5% to 6.6% QoQ.
The company with 208 active clients and 12,992 employees as of 31st December 2013, saw a positive in the form of controlled attrition with TTM attrition declining to 11.6% from 15.1% YoY, which some of its peers are currently battling. The cash rich company has declared a second interim dividend of Rs. 5 per share (first interim dividend of Rs. 5 per share paid after second quarter results) which will result in outgo of Rs. 24 crore, from cash reserves of Rs. 650 crore.