(Reuters) -India’s LTIMindtree on Thursday reported third-quarter revenue above estimates, helped by the execution of large deals won in previous quarters, although its profit fell on account of an uptick in expenses.
The country’s sixth-largest IT firm reported a 7.1% on-year rise in consolidated revenue at 96.61 billion rupees ($1.12 billion) in the three months ended Dec. 31. Analysts, on average, expected 96.25 billion rupees revenue, per data compiled by LSEG.
The company’s banking and financial services segment grew 7.5% on-year, on the back of the execution of deals from clients such as Nexi Group and South Africa-based Absa Bank over the last few months.
Going ahead, the IT sector could benefit from Donald Trump’s presidency in the United States due to his pro-business policies, top industry executives said in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, LTIMindtree CEO Debashis Chatterjee told analysts on a call that political and economic uncertainties persist, and “predicting spends trending with certainty is challenging” with a new US government and potential policy changes.
While peers such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys signalled early signs of a pickup in discretionary spending, LTIMindtree flagged limited momentum.
LTIMindtree earns nearly 75% of its revenue from the North America market.
The company reported a 7.1% decline in profit to 10.85 billion rupees. That missed analysts’ estimate of 11.39 billion rupees, as employee-related expenses rose 11%.
LTIMindtree rolled out wage hikes from Oct. 1, which also impacted its operating margin, Chatterjee said.
Its deal wins rose to $1.68 billion from $1.3 billion in the previous quarter and $1.5 billion in the year-ago period, and largely comprised of cost takeout and vendor consolidation deals.
The company’s shares closed 2.4% higher ahead of the results.
($1 = 86.5740 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B; Editing by Varun H K and Eileen Soreng)
