MUMBAI: Aptech Ltd. on Monday reported that net profit for the April-June
quarter plummeted 94 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Second-quarter net profit fell to Rs. 21.97 million ($466,059) or Rs 0.73 per
diluted share, from Rs 371.24 million or Rs 12.23 per share in the same period a
year earlier.
Total revenue plunged 42.2 per cent - to Rs 798.03 million from Rs 1.38
billion. Aptech followed in the footsteps of computer education industry leader
NIIT Ltd. in posting a huge decline in profit for the past quarter.
On July 19, NIIT reported that profit plummeted 93 per cent from a year
earlier, exceeding the most pessimistic forecasts and making analysts wary of
estimating the results of Aptech, which is even more dependent on revenue from
training.
NIIT's chairman had blamed the plunge in profit on the worse-than-expected
impact of the software sector's downturn, particularly on its education
business, which contributes towards half its revenue. Aptech provided separate
profit and revenue figures for its two main businesses, software services and
training, which threw light on the severe impact of the downturn on education.
While the training division contributed 89 per cent of total revenue, it
accounted for just 15.4 per cent of total net profit. No other details were
immediately available and company officials could not be contacted for comment.
Aptech is now spinning off the training business into a separate company.
Aptech's shares closed down 5.34 per cent at Rs 55.80 at the Bombay Stock
Exchange on Monday, ahead of the results. The benchmark index closed up 1.06 per
cent.
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