Category: Companies

Coforge Q2 net profit marginally up; sees order intake of $201 million

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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IT firm Coforge Ltd (formerly NIIT Technologies) has reported a marginal rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 120.7 crore for the second quarter ended September 30. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 119.5 crore in the July-September quarter last year, Coforge said in a regulatory filing on Thursday evening.

The company’s consolidated gross revenue rose 11.1 percent to Rs 1,153.7 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 1,038.5 crore in the year-ago period, it added. On a sequential basis, the net profit was higher by 51.1 percent from Rs 79.9 crore in the June 2020 quarter, while gross revenue was up by 9.1 percent over Rs 1,057 crore.

”The 8.1 percent sequential growth in constant currency terms came on the back of growth across all verticals, all geos and all account-sized based cuts for the firm,” Coforge Ltd Chief Executive Officer Sudhir Singh said. The sharp sequential increase in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), in order intake and order executable, is a testament to the tenacity of and the consistent execution delivered by Team Coforge despite the pandemic-induced headwinds, he added.

”As organisations pivot towards data, cloud and AI-led transformation the space for innovative and agile service providers in the broader tech services sandbox continues to expand,” he said. The insurance vertical expanded 13.6 percent quarter-on-quarter, contributing 34 percent to the quarter’s total revenue, the company said.

The BFS (banking and financial services) business grew 8.5 percent sequentially and contributed 17 percent to the total revenue, it added. The travel segment recorded a quarter-on-quarter growth of 6 percent and contributed 19 percent to the revenue.

Other segments collectively grew 6.7 percent quarter-on-quarter and represented 30 percent of the overall revenue. Among geographies, Americas grew by 11.9 percent sequentially, contributing 48 percent to the revenue mix, EMEA grew by 7.3 percent (contributing 36 per cent) and rest of the world grew by 5.6 per cent (contributing 16 per cent).

”The order intake during the quarter was exceptionally strong, with two large deal wins. The fresh business of USD 201 million was secured during the quarter under review, which is higher on both q-o-q and y-o-y basis,” Coforge said. A total of 12 new clients were added during the quarter.

”On the back of this continued deal signing momentum, the order book executable over the next twelve months increased to USD 489 million, representing a growth of 21 percent y-o-y,” it said. The company had a headcount of 11,162 people with the net addition of 564 people. Attrition was at 10.5 percent.

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Petrol demand back to normal; new refinery to cost Rs 25-30K cr: Chennai Petro

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Things are improving, demand is also increasing, SN Pandey, Managing Director of Chennai Petroleum said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“Demand is almost normal, diesel and aviation (fuel) is yet to pick up,” he added.

There is a substantial increase in crude throughput. “Our crude throughput during this quarter was 2.05 million tonne (mt) compared to the last quarter of 1.3 mt,” he said.

In terms of an upcoming refinery in Tamil Nadu, he said, “This is going to be 9 mtpa refinery. Once it gets approved, in four years’ time it will come on stream. The total expenditure for this project will be around Rs 29,000-30,000 crore.”

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Large deal pipeline robust; aiming leadership in select sectors: Coforge

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Coforge’s second quarter constant currency revenue growth of 1.8 percent is slightly ahead of the guidance and among the best in the industry.

In the post-results investor call, the management guided for at least 6 percent growth in constant currency revenues this current fiscal.

“That confidence comes on the back of the order executable that is locked in. On the back of the fact that despite the pandemic over the last two quarters, we have closed five large deals. The large deal pipeline continues to be robust,” the company’s Chief Executive Officer Sudhir Singh told CNBC-TV18.

“We intend to continue to be specialists as we have presence in a very limited set of verticals,” he added.

“Our exposure to the aviation industry has contracted significantly. At this point in time 51 percent of our revenue comes in from financial services, only 19 percent comes in from the travel sector at this point in time,” he said.

The company has witnessed growth in every vertical it operates in. “Every vertical that we operate in has grown, insurance has grown, BFSI has grown, travel has grown. The growth has been broad-based,” he said.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Difficult to predict festive season sales, says Bajaj Auto

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bajaj Auto reported its Q2FY21 numbers in-line with estimates. Rakesh Sharma, ED of Bajaj Auto discussed the numbers as well as the business outlook.

“We are five days into festive season, we are all very keenly observing the progression and it is very difficult to make prediction at this point of time,” he said.

Sharma is optimistic about maintaining margin despite raw material cost increase. “Despite the strong headwinds, the business has been able to come in with an improved margin performance,” he said.

The company has achieved higher ever sales of Pulsar this quarter. “We have had the highest ever sales of Pulsar in this situation this quarter. That has impacted the margins in a positive way,” he said.

In terms of exports, he said, “We had our highest ever exports in September and in a few days to go we can say with certainty that October performance will beat September performance. If we do not have any supply chain issues and transport interruption then in November we will beat October exports. Things are going pretty well.”

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To sustain margins; will do better than last year, says Newgen Software

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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“We will be able to sustain margins and number wise we will do better than last year,” said Diwakar Nigam, Chairman and MD of Newgen Software in an interview with CNBC-TV18. “We will get some amount of growth for the full year,” he added.

“All our existing customers have given higher level of business. The reason is obvious, in this COVID era everybody wants to work on a digital transformation and we provide digital transformation platform. Almost 80 percent of the banks in India are using us. I think there is a great potential for digital platforms where people can work from anywhere,” he said.

Going forward, he sees huge market potential in the western world. “There will be slight amount of increase in our marketing spend but the market is growing much bigger,” he said.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Expect margins to improve over next few quarters, says GMM Pfaudler

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Tarak Patel, MD GMM Pfaudler spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the company’s second quarter earnings.

“I believe there is a good chance of improvement in margins,” he said. He believes that some of the other initiatives that the company is taking in terms of the export business, spare part businesses will help expand margins.

The company had about Rs 350 crore order backlog at the end of Q2. “All in all, the order booking both for India and for international business remains very strong,” he said.

Speaking about proprietary products segment, he said, “We have changed our strategy a little bit.

The order book remains very strong in this segment. We are pretty much fully booked in this segment. Going forward we believe that this segment will also grow at a fast pace.”

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Expect demand to rebound post Diwali in western regions like Maharashtra: India Cements

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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It has been a strong show from cement companies so far this quarter with both ACC and UltraTech delivering good numbers. N Srinivasan, VC and MD, India Cements discussed from which segments the demand is coming and what growth the sector is pencilling in for H2FY21.

“I expect that over the next few months, once the rain stops, post Diwali you will see improvement in demand in Maharashtra,” he said.

According to him, it will take quite a while for south before the demand equals supply. “The total capacity in South is 30 lakh tonne for month, the demand is about 75 lakh tonnes for month.

Therefore, it will take a little while. However, the prices in the south are much higher than prices in the other parts of the country,” he said.

“Going forward, I expect demand will go up,” he added.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Security lapse puts data of Thrillophilia’s registered users at risk

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A security lapse on Thrillophilia website has put the data of all of its 2 million plus registered users at the risk of exposure and theft.

Thrillophilia is a Bengaluru-based trip planning, activity & experience-based company. 

The security flaw in Thrillophilia API would allow an attacker to fetch sensitive user data of any registered user bypassing their email address in the request.

“A data breach on the website would allow attackers to fetch sensitive data just by using the email address of the victim,” said Ehraz Ahmed, the security researcher who disclosed the issue to CNBC-TV18. The issue appears to have been fixed after CNBC-TV18 brought it to Thrillophilia’s notice.

Ahmed, 24-year-old tech entrepreneur and security researcher, has previously identified security flaws in Justdial, Truecaller and Airtel.

Ahmed says he discovered the flaw in the application program interface (API) of the Thrillophilia’s website and mobile app.

The issue

Thrillophila’s API gives access to third parties without verifying the token of authentication while logging in.

Their API can log anyone into the Thrillophilia’s database by modifying the email address into the cURL request. In response, the cURL returns the access token and all the other sensitive information given by the user at the time of making the account.

CNBCTV18.com was able to verify the issue.

How serious is the issue?

With a registered userbase of 2 million users, 3.5 million monthly visitors and 40 million pageviews, as per its website, Thrillophilia offers services in 15 countries.

In the case of a data breach, the sensitive data of 2 million registered customers would have been at stake.

The data includes names, usernames, date of birth, city, travel history, and photos.

Replying to the comment request from CNBC-TV18, Abhishek Puri, VP growth at Thrillophilia, said he was unaware of any problems in the system and that the issue, if any, would be escalated to the company’s tech department.

(Update: The copy has been updated to incorporate the fact that Thrillophilia appears to have fixed the issue after the flaw was brought to its attention.)

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi says, ‘Independent directors are a puzzle and issues with them are still troubling us’

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Addressing the 11th CII Financial Markets Summit, SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi spoke on a wide range of aspects around the capital markets. He said that the market regulator has observed an increasing trend in the number of resignations from independent directors in the last two-three years. They are the voices of minority shareholders on the company’s board, which is responsible to steer the company in the right direction.

Replying to a CNBC-TV18 query on whether further regulatory enhancements are required to look into these resignations from independent directors, the SEBI chairman admitted that independent directors are a puzzle, which it is still trying to deal with. Various questions around how these independent directors fit into the board structure, what kind of people should be appointed as independent directors still trouble the market regulator, he added.

Post implementation of the recommendations from the Kotak Committee on Corporate Governance, independent directors are supposed to give reasons for their resignation within 7 days of resigning.

Lastly, the SEBI chairman urged independent directors to come forward and clarify to the public if their resignation is due to governance concerns or on personal grounds.

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3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Customs delays worrying as festive sales may be impacted: Croma’s Ghosal

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Customs clearance delays at Indian ports have increased to almost a month now. Industry sources blame poor roll out of the faceless assessment system and lack of quick resolution by authorities for the crisis.

Some products are in short supply because of the delay in customs clearance, said Ritesh Ghosal, CMO of Croma in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“In the first four days of festive sales, we saw great growth but whether these are sustainable or not is a question because of shortages,” he added.

Air purifiers and steam inhalers, were seeing 50 percent growth year-on-year, Ghosal said, adding that microwave sales were getting impacted due to custom delays.

Kamal Nandi, Business Head & Executive Vice President, Godrej Appliances said he expects 15 percent year-on-year growth in October and November.

He said that strong demand for home appliances was not just pent-up, but was partly structural as well.

Nandi expects full year revenues to be down 10-15 percent year-on-year, but this would still be better than estimates of a 30 percent decline few months back.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow