Persistent Systems Q1 PAT seen down 20% at Rs 26.4 cr

Persistent Systems is expected to report a 20% fall in its first quarter FY12 profit after tax of Rs 26.4 crore as against Rs 33.1 crore in previous quarter, according to CNBC-TV18 poll.

Revenues are likely to go up by 6.2% to Rs 226 crore from Rs 212.8 crore on quarter-on-quarter basis. EBITDA too is seen improving to Rs 41 crore versus Rs 38.1 crore and EBITDA margin is expected to be at 18.8% as against 17.9% on QoQ basis. Q1 highlights Revenues growth is expected strong at 6.4% Margins are expected to rise as wage hike would only by 7-8% effective July 1st (as it had given pre-emptive hike of 10% given in Jan 2011). That could offset by increase in utilization and the benefit of broadening employee structure - freshers to account for around 40% of the total gross hiring of 2,300 in FY12 PAT is likely to be lower due to increase in tax rate. Tax rate is expected at 29-30% in FY12 versus 7.2% in FY11