Mid-sized IT player, Persistent Systems has reported a 58.6 per cent jump in the September quarter net profit to Rs 161.7 crore but said that managing the human resources is the biggest challenge ahead.
The Pune-based company posted a 34 per cent jump in the revenue to Rs 1,351.2 crore for the July-September period, which saw a massive increase in demand for software services. Its sequential revenue growth came at over 9 per cent for the second successive quarter.
Its operating profit margin came at 16.1 per cent, which executives explained was within the target band that it aspires.
Persistent Systems CEO Sandeep Kalra said demand has been moving very strong from all of its verticals that ensured a broad-based growth during the quarter. Its chief financial officer Sunil Sapre added that such growth could not have been foreseen a year ago and right now, it will be doing all for maintaining the momentum and not focusing exclusively on the margins front. Deals are getting signed quicker as clients become more serious about driving the changes in their respective businesses, and the company is also bidding for higher deal values of up to USD 100 million, he said, adding that earlier it used to do deals in the USD 50-million bracket.
The overall order book stood at $282.5 million as per total contract value for the quarter ended September.
As demand for human resources goes up with all the peers also experiencing high growth, the attrition increased to 23.6 per cent for the reporting quarter, up from 16.6 per cent in the preceding quarter and only 10.6 per cent in the year-ago period.
Kalra admitted that supply-side challenges are the biggest headwinds going forward and expected the issues to last up to a year before the industry stabilises. The company has taken measures, including the hiring of new talent, introducing a stock options programme, covering 80 per cent of the over 15,800 employees and helping them improve work-life balance, Sapre said.
Kalra said it will hire between 2,500-3,000 freshers over the next year to help on the talent side.
Sapre noted that typically, it hires experienced professionals as compared to the freshers, but the current circumstances will increase the fresher hiring in the overall pie. Of the total present workforce, 47 per cent have joined the company in the last one year, Sapre said.
The Persistent scrip closed 2.56 per cent up at Rs 4,035 on the BSE.
