NIIT Q4 profit at Rs 11.16 cr; Revenue from operations at Rs 74.34 cr

New Delhi: Skill and talent development company NIIT on Friday reported a consolidated net profit (attributable to owners of the parent company) of Rs 11.16 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2024.

The company had posted a loss of Rs 9.36 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing.

Revenue from operations in the January-March quarter came in at Rs 74.34 crore, a 23.81 per cent jump from the year-ago period.

Despite a continuing freeze in IT sector hiring and compression in spending, the business has exited the year with year-on-year growth in Q4, after starting Q1 with a steep decline, the company said in an investor presentation.

Vice Chairman and Managing Director Vijay K Thadani said Q4 was a seasonally weak quarter for the business. Therefore, year-on-year changes are more appropriate for comparison, he said.

"The business has responded with agility to the IT hiring freeze with alternate growth strategies which resulted in getting back on the path of growth in Q4," he said.

Thadani expressed confidence in the potential of generative AI (GenAI), and said, "GenAI is a huge opportunity. We have an early-mover advantage. We need to capitalise on that".

The company previously announced the incorporation of Generative AI into its existing Digital Marketing and Full-Stack Software Engineering programs.

For FY24, net profit saw a multifold increase to Rs 38.36 crore, as against Rs 3.17 crore in FY23.

The revenue from operations declined by 11.07 per cent to Rs 303.47 crore, from Rs 341.25 crore in the previous fiscal.

"We are not satisfied with the year-on-year revenue, and this has been contributed by the freeze in hiring, which has now continued for 6 consecutive quarters by the global systems integrators of IT services funds.

"This freeze in hiring has definitely affected our strong revenue which used to come from the technology segment," Thadani told PTI.

The company's headcount as of March 2024 was 753, down 206 on a year-on-year basis.

The company recommended a final dividend of Rs 0.75 per equity share. This is in addition to an interim dividend of Rs 0.50 per equity share declared on October 31, 2023.

NIIT's shares settled at Rs 107.10 apiece on BSE on Friday, up 5.73 per cent from the previous close.