HCL Technologies said it was not worried by the changes proposed by the Donald Trump administration with regard to immigration visa norms for expat workers as it has a fairly balanced workforce in the US, which contributes a little more than 60 percent of its revenues.
"Today, we have 12 centres in the US, a lot of them at a significant scale. Overall, we have 12,000 employees in the US - greater than 50 per cent of them are locals," C Vijayakumar, president and CEO of HCL Technologies, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI at a press conference in Delhi on Thursday.
This, according to him, would see through the company as and when the stricter visa norms come into effect. "So, I think our overall business model and what we have done over the last few years is really helping us navigate any situation that could potentially come up," he said.
The company's headcount rose to 1,15,973 employees as of March 31, 2017 from 1,04,896 at the end of March 2016.
HCL Technologies declared its fourth quarter (Q4) and FY2017 results on Thursday.
Consolidated net profit rose 27 percent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 2,475 crore for Q4 from Rs 1,938 crore in the year-ago period, while revenues stood at Rs 13,183 crore, up 20 percent from Rs 10,925 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing to the BSE.
For FY2017, revenues stood at Rs 48,640 crore, up 52 percent, YoY and net profit rose 53 percent to Rs 8,606 crore.
""We are very pleased with our industry–leading financial results for both the fourth quarter and the full year FY'17," Vijayakumar said in the filing.
CFO Anil Chanana also expressed satisfaction on the company's performance. "We are glad about the overall Fiscal 2017 and the quarter performance. Our focus on rewarding shareholders continues with the announcement of Rs 3,500 Crore buy-back program. Return on Equity continues to be healthy at 27% for the year," he said in the filing.
The company declared an interim dividend of Rs 6 per equity share. HCL Technologies fixed May 25 as the record date for determining entitlement of dividend as well as for share buyback.
Angel Broking analyst said that the robust results declared by the company and FY2018 revenue guidance make for a compelling stock upgrade. "For FY'2018 revenues are expected to grow between 10.5% to 12.5% in Constant Currency (CC). Revenue Guidance is based on FY'17 (April to March) average exchange rates. The above constant currency guidance translates to 9.9% to 11.9% in US$ terms based on March 31, 2017 rates. Given the valuations, we maintain our BUY rating with a target price of Rs 1,000," Sarabjit Kour Nangra, VP Research- IT, at the brokerage said.
HCL Technologies shares closed at Rs 839 apiece on Thursday on the BSE.
