Latest News | NIIT Q4 Net Profit Drops 97 Pc to Rs 0.6 Cr Due to COVID-19 Hit
Get latest articles and stories on Latest News at LatestLY. NIIT Ltd on Thursday said its consolidated net profit dropped 97 per cent to Rs 0.6 crore in March 2020 quarter, impacted by disruption in operations on account of COVID-19 pandemic.
New Delhi, Jun 4 (PTI) NIIT Ltd on Thursday said its consolidated net profit dropped 97 per cent to Rs 0.6 crore in March 2020 quarter, impacted by disruption in operations on account of COVID-19 pandemic.
The skills and talent development firm had posted a net profit of Rs 23.2 crore in the year-ago period.
Also Read | Samsung Galaxy A31 a 48MP Quad Rear Camera Setup Launched in India at Rs 21,999.
Revenue declined by 4 per cent to Rs 211.2 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 219.2 crore in the year-ago period.
"Most of the impact is due to COVID-related suspension of operation not just in China but also in Europe and India. We lost between 3-10 weeks from education operations perspective," NIIT CEO Sapnesh Lalla told reporters.
He added that the company was able to recover a fair part by launching digital programme, but there was still a large impact.
According to an investor presentation, NIIT's operations of education centres in China were suspended from third week of January.
Similarly, in India and Rest of the World (RoW), centre operations were restricted from early March and suspended in last two weeks.
"B2B business across US, Europe, and India saw significant deferrals of planned in-person learning events starting early March. Demand side impact for some category of customers such as IT Services & BFSI in India due to slowdown in hiring," it added.
Lalla noted that demand for digital skills is likely to pick up, which will be a positive for the company.
NIIT has also put out its schools business as an asset for sale.
"We have decided to divest our stake in the schools business and there were some active discussions that had started in the month of March based on that there would have been some action, but then the pandemic stuck and the discussions had to be stopped," NIIT Vice Chairman and MD Vijay K Thadani said.
He added that customers of schools business continue to be serviced.
The company had announced selling its shares in NIIT Technologies in April last year, which helped revenue and profits grow for FY20.
It had received gross proceeds of Rs 2,020.4 crore in cash from the transaction.
For the fiscal 2019-20, NIIT's net profit zoomed 1,436 per cent to Rs 1,327.5 crore, while revenue grew 3 per cent to Rs 889.2 crore from the previous financial year.
The company's board noted the strong liquidity position of the company, and cash balance of Rs 1,208.8 crore at the end of the financial year. It recommended a final dividend of Rs 2 per share, and this follows an interim dividend of Rs 8 per share declared in February, 2020.
The Corporate Learning Group (CLG) recorded revenues of Rs 175.4 crore, up 10 per cent year-on-year during the fourth quarter.
It signed five new Managed Training Services (MTS) contracts in the said quarter, taking the total number of MTS customers to 54.
Full year revenue for CLG was recorded at Rs 691.3 crore, up 9 per cent year-on-year, and 14 new MTS contracts were signed during the fiscal.
During the quarter, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NIIT developed a set of actionable roadmaps, toolkits and packaged services to help Learning and Development (L&D) organizations minimize the disruption caused due to the accelerating impact of the crisis, it said.
It launched three new products -- Digital Assessment Services, Virtual Selling Skills, and Rapid Portfolio Digitalisation.
The Skills & Careers Business (SNC) recorded net revenue of Rs 35.8 crore in March 2020 quarter, while for the full year it stood at Rs 197.9 crore for the segment.
During the reported quarter, SNC added two large customers, including a leading private bank and a global auto company.
At the end of March 2020 quarter, the company had 2,600 employees.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)