Persistent posts 64.35%% profit after tax in Q4

Mid-size IT company Persistent Systems reported a 64.35% year-on-year growth in profit after tax to Rs 137 crore for the March quarter, with 20.2% growth in revenue to Rs 1,113.36 crore. Revenue in dollar terms was up 20.3% to $152.82 million during Q4 FY21, with the company reporting growth across all verticals.

Sunil Sapre, executive director & CFO, Persistent Systems, said on Friday that the fourth quarter has traditionally been a soft quarter for the company, but it has reversed the trend in Q4FY21 because of the tailwind the industry has seen on account of digital acceleration. The fourth quarter performance also helped lift overall performance of FY21, he said.

Growth was also fuelled by large-size deals. The company bagged multiple deals of larger size and has continued to have deal wins in all quarters of FY21, Sapre said. The company had eight to 10 three-year deals in the $15 to $50 million range, Sapre said. It expects this growth trajectory to continue for another two to three years, Sapre said. The company already had a good pipeline for FY22, he said.

Persistent has seen a shift to offshoring, with a lot of work done onsite now being considered safe to shift offshore, Sapre said. As a result, Persistent had a 25% rise in headcount in India and added 2,900 people in the second half of FY21. Persistent had a team of 13,680 at present. It will hire around 800 freshers soon.

The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment and the healthcare segment contributed to growth, with both sectors ramping up digitalisation, Sapre said. The shift has happened faster than expected, he said.

In BFSI, activities such as loan or business origination, KYC, digital lending and payments have gone digital, while in health care, patient engagement is moving to digital platforms to reduce direct contract with patients during the pandemic, Sapre said. A lot of B2B business moved to becoming B2C business, which generated business for the company.