MSatyam net falls 15% at Rs 454 cr in Q4

Declares dividend for first time after Mahindra group took over the scandal-hit software company four years ago Software firm Mahindra Satyam registered 15 per cent fall in net profit during the fourth quarter ended on March 31 on account of higher tax outgo. The city-based firm's net for the period stood at Rs 454 crore as compared with Rs 534 crore in the same quarter a year ago. On quarter-on-quarter basis, the net profit jumped four times from Rs 80 crore in Q3. However, the company declared a dividend of 30 per cent for the first time in four years after Mahindra group took over the scam-hit Satyam Computer Services Limited, then owned by B Ramalinga Raju. "The turnaround of Mahindra Satyam is practically complete now. As a good will gesture of this, we have declared 30 per cent dividend. Henceforth, we will continue to reward the shareholders. We thank all the stakeholders for their support during the difficult times," Vineet Nayyar, Chairman, Mahindra Satyam, told media here on Thursday after announcing the financial results. The revenues during Q4 were at Rs 1,936 crore, a growth of 16 per cent from Rs 1,666 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal.

The EBITDA margins during the period under review increased 33.5 per cent to Rs 389.23 crore from Rs 292 crore a year ago. The exceptional items that were added to the profit stood at Rs 134 crore. "The North American market continued to dominate the company's top line with 52 per cent share while Europe accounted for 22 per cent and the rest of the world, 24 per cent," said C P Gurnani, the company's CEO. For the entire FY-13 too, net profit fell 10.9 per cent to Rs 1,164 crore, as against Rs 1,306 crore in FY-12. However, the total revenues went up 20.3 per cent to Rs 7,693 crore from Rs 6,396 crore a year ago. On merger with Tech Mahindra, Nayyar said the company was expecting final judgment from AP High Court early June. "The process is at penultimate phase now. We are confident of receiving positive verdict as most of the shareholders had given their consent for the proposal," he explained. The merger of Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra has already received approval from Bombay High Court, Competition Commission of India and other regulatory bodies. Nayyar said the new visa regime proposed by the US government would impact the company to some effect. "We are gearing up to deal with it as we have already invested on four centres in the US," he said. Asked about outlook for the current fiscal, Gurnani said the company would log in better performance than the last fiscal. The company added 43 new clients during the fourth quarter, taking the total number of active clients to 385. Total headcount stood at 36,067 as of March 31, 2013, with a year-on-year addition of 2,714. It has cash and cash equivalent balance of Rs 2,922 crore at the end of last fiscal.