




Achche din for homegrown IT services companies delayed
Mint analysis, this is the third straight quarter where brokerages have outlined sequential growth below 4%, signalling a tempered outlook. This follows efforts by companies to pursue new growth avenues.TCS and HCLTech release their December quarter earnings on 12 January, Infosys on 14 January, and Tech Mahindra on 16 January.
Wipro is yet to announce its earnings date.The quarter may send out "mixed signals", Axis Capital said in a 2 January report. Analysts Manik Taneja, Rohit Thorat, and Rushabh Jain said "company-specific factors" will drive sequential growth for TCS, Wipro and HCL Tech, while Infosys and Tech Mahindra may slow on furloughs as fewer employees are available to work.The December quarter is typically weak for IT companies due to holidays and fewer working days, resulting in lower billings than usual.
This year, it's worsened by geopolitical tensions, tariff-related uncertainties in the US and Europe.Still, not everyone is hurt by the seasonality. All four brokerages expect Noida-based HCLTech, India's third-largest IT company, to outperform the top five with growth of 2-3.6% on a quarterly basis.“We expect HCLTech to lead on revenue growth (2.2% QoQ CC) and margin expansion (~50bps QoQ), supported by positive seasonality in the software product business,” said ICICI Securities analysts Ruchi Mukhija, Aditi Patil, and Seema Nayak, in a note dated 24 December.HCLTech purchased seven software products from International Business Machines Corp in December 2018 for $1.8 billion.
It has since repackaged and sold these software products to clients. About 9% of its business is derived from the sale of such products and their licenses, with sales peaking in the third quarter, which helps offset seasonal
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