TCS reports 13.8% fall in net profit in fully locked down Q1

TCS CEO and MD Rajesh Gopinathan said the company believes the coronavirus impact has "bottomed out" and that TCS should now start tracing its path to growth. 

The country's largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursday reported a 13.8 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 7,008 crore in the three months ended June. 

It had a consolidated net profit of Rs 8,131 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing. 

The revenue of the company rose marginally in the first quarter of the current fiscal to Rs 38,322 crore. In the year-ago period, the same stood at Rs 38,172 crore. 

Globally, businesses have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. While Indian IT firms had seen some impact in March, this is the first full quarter factoring in the impact of disruption and lockdowns in various parts of the world, including India. 

"The revenue impact of the pandemic played out broadly along the lines we had anticipated at the start of the quarter. It affected all verticals, with the exception of Life Sciences and Healthcare, with varying levels of impact," TCS CEO and MD Rajesh Gopinathan said. 

He said the company believes the impact has "bottomed out" and that TCS should now start tracing its path to growth. 

After an initial period of disruption, customers have now stabilised their operations, and the company is seeing many customers focus on front-end transformation, resulting in significant traction for its products and services, he noted. 

"The other big investment themes are around driving operational resilience, adaptability and optimisation. We signed several large core transformation programs encompassing operations, applications, cloud and cyber security," he said. 

The company said despite the continued uncertainty and weakness in all major economies, it has had very healthy deal closures and a strong pipeline. 

At the beginning of the first quarter, TCS had said it expects recovery from the third quarter of FY21.