Growth in emerging markets and lower forex losses, the country?s fourth software exporter, HCL Technologies, posted 34.2% increase in its net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2010. Net profit stood at Rs 399.7 crore against Rs 297.7 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 3,888 crore, up 27.8%, against Rs 3,041 crore posted in the year ago quarter.

?The dynamic demand environment necessitates a sharp focus on innovation and tangible value generation for customers. This is evident from our continued robust performance in calendar year 2010 with HCL exceeding $3 billion in revenue, posting 26% y-o-y growth and a four quarter compounded quarterly growth rate (CQGR) of 7.3%,? said Vineet Nayar, vice chairman and CEO, HCL Technologies.

Further, the company is looking at divesting some of the existing businesses, geographies and customers by 2015 which are not strategic for it.

HCL won 17 transformational deals during the quarter and one $100 million client. Geography wise, Americas contributed 57% to the revenues with Europe following at 26.6%. Among the verticals, retail and consumer packaged goods, energy-utilities-public and healthcare were the fastest growing. The firm is also looking at increasing its EBIT margins from 13.1% now to 15.3% by the June quarter. On the BPO front, the company expects to post a loss of $6 million per quarter till 2012.

?The October- December quarter was good in terms of deals and the next quarter is also expected to be healthy,? added Nayar. On a sequential basis, the company’s net income rose 20.7% from Rs 331.1 crore registered in the trailing quarter while revenues were up 4.9% from Rs 3,798 crore posted in the September quarter.

?HCLT results are above estimates. While revenues were marginally higher than our estimates, margins improved more than what we had assumed. HCLT has brought in more consistency in IT services business while IMS business continues to grow at a rapid pace,? said Dipen Shah, senior vice president (PCG Research), Kotak Securities. The net addition to the headcount was 2,049 taking the total headcount to 72,267.

HCL Infosystems sells subsidiary to Tikona

Hardware and system integration company HCL Infosystems on Wednesday sold its entire stake in its wholly-owned subsidiary HCL Infinet to Tikona Digital Networks Ltd for an undisclosed sum.

The move comes as part of HCL Infosystems? transformation strategy under which the company will be strengthening its core business and expanding into identified growth areas. ?HCL Infinet is today poised to take on a different growth trajectory and is best suited to further strengthen an enterprise like Tikona focused on delivering interner service provider (ISP) and national long distance (NLD) services in the fast emerging telecom industry,? said Harsh Chitale, CEO, HCL Infosystems.