Polaris Q4 net up 3.6 per cent at Rs 45.41 crore

Polaris Financial Technology on Wednesday said its consolidated net profit has increased 3.6 per cent to Rs 45.41 crore in the quarter ended March, 2014.

This is against a net profit of Rs 43.83 crore in the January-March 2013 quarter, the mid-sized IT firm said in a statement.

The company's revenues grew 16.3 per cent to Rs 645.49 crore for the quarter under review from 554.73 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014, Polaris saw net profit dipping marginally to Rs 199.19 crore, while revenues grew 8.2 per cent to Rs 2,499.06 crore compared to the previous fiscal year.

"Profit after tax was at Rs 199 crore after absorbing hedging losses of Rs 104 crore. We expect to see a upside to EPS in the coming year as hedging losses move out," Polaris chief financial officer S Swaminathan said.

He further said the company generated an additional cash of over Rs 170 crore in the quarter, bringing the cash position to Rs 691 crore after payout of Rs 54 crore towards the PCFC loan.

Last month, the company had announced the demerger of its products business into a separate unit.

After the process is completed, the product company will be called Intellect Design Arena, while Polaris will continue to run the Services business.

During January-March 2014, services business grew 18 per cent year-on-year to Rs 515 crore from Rs 438 crore, while for the year, it grew 10 per cent y-o-y to Rs 1,966 crore.

It represented 79 per cent of the consolidated revenues.

The US contributed 56 per cent to Polaris' Services revenues, while Europe contributed 20 per cent, India 6 per cent and the rest of the world 18 per cent.

The products business saw revenues growing 28 per cent y-o-y to Rs 131 crore in the reported quarter, while for the FY14 revenues rose 14 per cent y-o-y to Rs 533 crore.

"We restructured the company into independent Services and Product businesses, with the clear objective of moving to a customer centric organisation, and to propel the next level of growth and value creation," Polaris executive chairman Arun Jain said.

Despite the major restructuring exercise Polaris has undertaken, the company has been able to protect revenues and sustain margin levels, he added.

"Our sweet spot in the services business will be around digital banking, payments and risk management. We have three flagship products in consumer banking, three in global transaction banking, two in risk and treasury management and two products in Insurance that will drive the Products business' growth in the coming year," he said.

The board of directors has recommended a final dividend of Rs 6.25 per equity share for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2014.