Net profits for the quarter ended September 30 of NIIT along with its subsidiaries surged over 70 per cent at Rs 90.8 crore against Rs 53.3 crore for the same period last year. The board of directors which met here on Monday to finalise the results also announced a dividend of 42.5 per cent on an equity of Rs 38.65 crore, requiring an outflow of Rs 16.43 crore on this account.

Breaking the tradition of announcing results after the close of trading, NIIT announced its results in the morning before the opening of the market.

So far only Infosys and Satyam have adopted the model of announcing results in the morning, mainly because of its listing in Nasdaq and the requirement of announcing results before or after the trading in India as well in the US. Announcing the results, chairman of the company Rajendra Pawar and chief executive officer Vijay Thadani told reporters that the order intake during the financial year has crossed $123.98 million registering a growth of 102 per cent. Earning per share grew by 57 per cent at Rs 58. On the performance of the last quarter, they said e-revenues has recorded a growth of 41 per cent against 38 per cent during the last quarter. Fresh orders during the quarter was to the tune of $39 million, which is up 103 per cent over the same period last year. In the process, company added 37 new customers.

Pawar said the strong growth in earnings reinforces the sustainability and steadiness of NIIT's unique business model that leverages the strengths of its software and education business.

On the mix of revenue from software and learning, he said it has changed in favour of software. Education which constituted for 55 per cent last year has come down to 51 per cent, while the share of software has grown from 45 per cent to 49 per cent. "This might continue to tilt in favour of software for some more time," said Thadani. NIIT has increased its market reach to 26 countries by expanding its operations into Thailand and Philippines.

Additional 226 centres were added in the last three months, of which 24 were overseas.

US geography posted the strongest growth rate of 55 per cent, contributing Rs 320.9 crore or 48 per cent to the international revenue. Revenue from Europe grew by 41 per cent to bring in Rs 163.8 crore forming 25 per cent of global revenue. This was followed by a growth of 39 per cent by the Asia Pacific with a total of Rs 180 crore representing 27 per cent of international revenue.