Software exporter Patni?Computer Services that reported a drop in topline by 1.8% sequentially at Rs 789 crore during the fourth quarter ended December 2009, said that budgets for the next fiscal looks flattish though BPO-related projects could see rationalisation in cost structures. Surjeet Singh, CFO, Patni said that the firm was not witnessing any uptick in discretionary spending
At the same time, Patni?s top two clients GE and an insurance client have continued to show spend cuts. According to Singh these clients are expected to bounce back in the forthcoming quarters. He added that the firms will continue to back on cost cutting factors and maintain utilization levels at 75-77% in a bid to maintain margins at 15-17% in the coming year.
On Thursday Patni said that its net profits were up 10% sequentially to Rs 188 crore for the quarter from Rs 171 crore boosted by tax write-back of Rs 14 crore of tax provisions made earlier and also had a foreign exchange gain of Rs 15 crore as compared to loss of Rs 61 crore in the last quarter.?For the current quarter the firm said its outlook for revenues was at $ 170 million to $ 174 million and profits in the range of $ 28-29 million, except for any foreign-exchange fluctuations. The firm saw a volume growth of about 3% during the quarter.
Singh also added that the firm was looking at deals in the upwards of $150-200 million transactions on a multi-year basis. However, these would be overall short-term focused on return on investment kind of projects. The firm is also looking at acquisitions in the range of $200-$250 million both on the geographical expansion side and building the scale on the BPO and ERP side, he added.
