Persistent posts flat Q1 revenue growth

Pune-based information technology services firm Persistent Systems reported flat revenue growth while profit declined sequentially as well as on a yearly basis. 

Barring Infosys, most IT firms have reported revenue growth and profits below market expectations during the first quarter of the fiscal year 2019-20.

Persistent reported Rs 832 crore in revenue during the first quarter of FY20 as against Rs 834 crore it had reported during the same quarter of the last financial year, a marginal decline of 0.2%.  The revenue was Rs 831.8 crore during the March quarter.

The IT firm reported a net profit of Rs 82.5 crore for the first quarter as against Rs 85 crore reported during the March quarter, a decline of 2.4% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Its net profit decline on a Y-o-Y basis was sharper at 5.6% from Rs 87.4 crore.

Despite the average performance,  CEO and executive director Christopher O’Connor was upbeat, saying that the fundamentals are sound as it had key deal wins during the quarter. He added that the company is focussed on sustained profitable growth.

The mid-size IT firm's employee count crossed 10,000 during the quarter, an official statement said today.

The company had completed its share buyback on June 27, 2019, and had purchased 3,575,000 equity shares, the statement said. 

Persistent had announced earlier it will acquire Germany-based Youperience for up to 6.8 million euros ($7.73 million or Rs 53.6 crore then) in an all-cash transaction. Youperience focuses on implementation services related to customer relationship manager Salesforce.