Mindtree posted 11.2 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 60.60 crore for the December quarter of 2011, compared with Rs 54.5 crore for the quarter ended September 2011. But in dollar terms, its profit after tax remained stable quarter on quarter.

MindTree reported 13.8 per cent quarter on quarter revenue growth at Rs 519.7 crore, up from Rs 456.7 crore. In dollar terms, revenues grew 2.3 per cent quarter over quarter (3.1 per cent on constant currency basis) and 21.6 per cent year on year basis to $103.7 million.

Speaking about the market situation, MindTree chief executive officer Krishnakumar Natarajan said: “Sale cycles are getting elongated as customers are becoming cautious. In the product engineering space, there are some segments that are seeing a slowdown. Product engineering revenues have declined about 5.1 per cent. We will have more clarity on this over the next four to eight weeks of this quarter.”

“In spite of Q3 being a seasonally weak quarter, we have seen significant improvement in margins mainly due to the depreciation of rupee and also a marginal increase due to our continued focus on operational excellence initiatives. The global economic situation continues to be challenging and we need to monitor this constantly and be prepared. Over the past few quarters, our strategy to be an expertise-led organisation has yielded positive results and we believe this direction will help us in dealing with such challenges more confidently.”

He said muted growth during the third quarter was more due to seasonal factors of holidays. He cited the improvement in operating margins due to a sharp depreciation of rupee. Its operating profit before other income and interest rose to Rs 72.40 crore for the quarter ended December, from Rs 41.4 crore in the September quarter.

The attrition rate at the company has come down to an annualised rate of about 19.4 per cent . MindTree's attrition rate fell to about 21.7 per cent in the second quarter from 25.6 per cent in the first quarter of financial year 2012. It added 846 people on a gross basis during the December quarter, taking its total strength to 10,934 as of December 31, 2011.