For the fourth quarter, the revenue from operations was Rs 162.07 crore (Rs 159.89 crore for Q3 2008) and profit after tax stood at Rs 18.36 crore (Rs 23.44 crore for Q3 2008). While the revenue has shown a 1.36 per cent growth over Q3, the dip in PAT levels is mainly on account of: an increase investment of Rs 374 lakhs in software development expenses and an increase in investment of Rs 260 lakhs in selling and marketing expenses.
The above additional expenses are for the company's new business solutions initiatives in pharma and creative services verticals. The revenue benefits for these initiatives would however accrue only during the next financial year 2008-09.
Speaking on the company's performance, Sudarshan Venkatraman, chairman and CEO, Zylog Systems Limited, said, "We are focussing on acquiring smaller companies offering niche products that compliment our solutions and services capabilities. We believe that this strategy will help us grow better in the coming months. The MoU for acquiring a Dubai-based company in the product space will helps us to set our footprint in the Middle Eastern region, and this acquisition will give us ample opportunity for cross selling our capabilities to their marquee clientele."
"We are investing in newer practices and in newer markets as part of our business solution initiatives within the consumer electronics, pharma and creative services practice areas. Further investment is also considered in the technology solutions within VoIP, enterprise 2.0 and Wifi technologies and we strongly believe, these initiatives would substantially add value to our existing offerings."
Ramanujam Sesharathnam, managing director and COO, Zylog Systems Limited, said, "Our results reflect a validation of our robust business model that has helped us to achieve strong growth rates. The EBIDTA margins have also seen an improvement of 17.93 per cent for 2008 up from 17.13 per cent for 31 March 2007 despite a challenging external business environment. This was mainly on account of our ability to increase the billing rates by around 5 per cent for this year. We have been able to achieve these growth rates despite rupee appreciating 11 per cent during the year, with the help of a combination of natural hedging and the US dollar working capital facility that we have with our bankers."
The company's EPS for 2007-08 stood at Rs 50.01, as compared with Rs 42.07 for the year 2006-07. The company has 176 active clients, which include three $5 million clients and 35 $1 million clients. The company also declared Rs 3 per share as dividend for the year 2008.
Zylog's global technical headcount as at 31 March 2008 stands at 1,576. |
