:: HCL Infosystems' net profit grows to Rs. 73 Crores ::

Turnover crosses Rs. 1100 Crores
Service Revenues cross Rs. 200 Crores
New Delhi, August 10, 2000

HCL Infosystems Ltd (HCL Insys), India's premier technology integration company today announced the audited results for its financial year ended June 30, 2000. During this period the company's turnover grew to Rs 1136 crores from Rs 950 crores in the previous year. Revenues in the last quarter rose 27 per cent, up from Rs 263 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

For the full year, profit before tax grew to Rs 78 crores and PAT to Rs 73 crores. The profit available for appropriation jumped by 109 per cent to Rs 73 crores during the current financial year from Rs 35 crores in the previous year. The compounded annual growth rates for revenues and profits over the last 3 years are 21 per cent and 143 per cent. Consolidated service revenues of the company as per US GAAP grew by 36 per cent to Rs 209 crores, and net profits after tax by 44 per cent to Rs 82 crores. Profits as per US GAAP are higher than that as per Indian GAAP by 13 per cent.

The Board has recommended a dividend payout of 25 per cent, subject to approval of the members at the annual general meeting scheduled to be held on 19th October 2000.

Speaking on the occasion, Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems Ltd said, "In 1998-99 we put in place our Net. Strategy with the objective to streamline and integrate our domain-Knowledge, skill-sets and infrastructure for the emerging net economy. Our FY 1999-2000 results reflect the successful implementation of this strategy, with increased business coming from web-related services and product sales in India and overseas".

Domestic and Overseas Services
HCL Insys' software and services export business has shown a steady growth as well as a significant movement up the value chain this year. The company further consolidated its global services infrastructure and set up new overseas operations in Australia. The Professional Services Organisation made significant investments in technology, partnerships and training to complete the spectrum of its e-business capability suite and added IBM Websphere, BEA Weblogic and Tuxedo, Broadvision B2B Technologies, Pivotal CRM and i2 SCM technologies to its portfolio.

HCL Infosystems this year was involved with several prestigious web-centric projects in the overseas market such as the WAP and GPS enabled Restaurant e-mediary portal in North America, an ERP implementation project for the Singapore Mass Rapid Transport Corporation, a long term product development and maintenance assignment for Rightworks, a US based software company that powers digital marketplaces. Additionally, the company has won long-term software development and maintenance projects from companies like Pernec, Lityan Holdings, Extol and AMAL Assurance in Malaysia and IBM and Alcatel in the UK.

In the Hardware Services and Networking area the company implemented several large projects including an end-to-end networking and facilities management project for Go4i.com, the complete ISP infrastructure and systems integration solution for BPLNet and several other ISPs, a comprehensive parabanking infrastructure project for Sahara India and facilities management services for Hindustan Times and Bajaj Auto.

Hardware Business
HCL Infosystems continued to consolidate its position as the leader in the hardware business and crossed the 100000 mark in PC sales. The company this year bagged two of its biggest orders ever for its Infiniti Global Line Servers and Desktops from the National Crime Records Bureau and from the Andhra Pradesh government. Further, the company also bagged several other prestigious orders from organisations such as Sahara India, Western Air Command, ICICI, Mumbai Stock Exchange, NIC, C-DOT, BPL, Lucent Technologies, ST Microelectronics, EHPT, and Southern Railways, among others.

In the Home / SOHO and SME marketplaces the frontline division continued its dominance with its Busybee and Beanstalk brands of PCs and the Toshiba brand of Laptop computers. The division recently launched a premium range of Home PCs called Beanstalk Elite and BeanStalk Ultima, incorporating the leading edge Flex technology. The Frontline division's packaged software business comprising the indigenous HCL Accountant and Dragon Speech recognition software also showed good growth.

Infocom Business
The Office Automation Division expanded the scope of its services with the creation of the Business Solutions Group to provide Enterprise Wide Telecom Solutions. The Division added new solutions in structured cabling and brought-in-maintenance to further supplement its current range of imaging and telecom hardware products and support services which include Toshiba Copiers, InFocus Multimedia Projectors, Duplo Digital Duplicators, Nokia Cellphones, Ericsson PBX and Samsung Key Telephone Systems.

The division's imaging business also grew at a fast pace. Amongst the organisation's achievements was a series of awards from its principals including those for Sales, Marketing and Support from Toshiba. During the year, it also received the best service provider award for India instituted by Nokia.

Quality Initiatives
HCL Infosystems continued on its quality journey this year with the SEI CMM Level IV accreditation, for its software development processes and the ISO 9001 certification for its manufacturing processes. The company has been recently awarded the MAIT Level II recognition for business excellence.

New Internet subsidiary: HCL Infinet
One of the most significant developments at HCL Infosystems has been the formation of its Internet subsidiary, HCL Infinet Limited. A value added B2B and B2C internet services provider, HCL Infinet will be providing a host of services ranging from consumer access, hosting and co-location services to Virtual Private Networks, Application Services and B2B e-commerce exchange services. Besides, it will also be hosting an exciting horizontal portal.

About HCL Infosystems
With a definite and distinct focus on enterprise solutions and personal computers, HCL Infosystems (HCL Insys) has direct customer service centres at 143 locations, 6 software export factories and a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. HCL Insys has five overseas business entities in US, UK, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. HCL Insys, manufacturing processes are ISO 9001 certified, while its software development processes have achieved SEI CMM Level 4. The company has recently set up an Internet subsidiary called HCL Infinet Limited that will provide value added Internet services in the B2B and B2C areas.

With a mission statement to provide world-class information technology solutions and services to enable its customers to serve their customers better, HCL Insys is setting new standards of information technology in India.