TCS Q4 net surges 52% on Europe, Asia-Pacific gains

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reported a 51.5% year-on-year increase in net profit to Rs 5,297 crore for the January-March 2014 quarter against Rs 3,497 a year ago, led by a surge in contracts across Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT company, on Wednesday reported a 51.5% year-on-year increase in net profit to Rs 5,297 crore for the January-March 2014 quarter against Rs 3,497 a year ago, led by a surge in contracts across Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

On Tuesday, rival Infosys had reported a 25% surge in net profits to Rs 2,992 crore.

TCS’ revenue during the quarter grew 31.2% to Rs 21,551 crore. The company expects strong growth to continue during the current fiscal year led by financial services, retail and life sciences business verticals.

"We have delivered strong growth, maintained our momentum and expanded our presence in newer markets like Europe during the past twelve months," said N Chandrasekaran, CEO and managing director of TCS.

Chandrasekaran said the current financial year would be even better than last fiscal. "We see discretionary spends going towards digital…(and) our strategic investments including those in digital technologies are helping us anticipate and shape new market trends successfully."

The company, however, struggled with its India business that has remained flat.

TCS added a net 9,751 employees during the fourth quarter. At the end of March 31, 2014, the company’s total headcount stood at 300,464. The IT major said it would hire around 55,000 more employees during 2014-15.

The company signed nine large deals across verticals during the fourth quarter.

"TCS results were in line with our estimates. The company has not seen any slowdown in contract awards and it continues to win business in discretionary spend areas," said Dipen Shah, IT analyst at Kotak Securities.