NIIT Limited declares Consolidated Results for Q4 and FY 2016-17; Q4 Revenue at Rs. 361.5 Cr

Mumbai: NIIT Limited, a global leader in skills and talent development, today reported its results for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2017.
During the quarter, the company recorded a Net Revenue of Rs. 361.5Cr, up 51% YoY and a PAT of Rs. 30.2 Cr, up 70% YoY. For the full year, the Company’s Net Revenue stood at Rs. 1187.7 Cr, up 18% YoY and PAT was recorded at Rs. 65.1 Cr. Cash Management in Q4 was robust, with Net Debt reducing to Rs. 41.9Cr from Rs. 103.8Cr last quarter; and DSO days reduced to 79 days from 98 days last quarter.

The results were taken on record at the meeting of the Board of Directors here today.

Speaking on the company’s performance, Mr. Rahul Patwardhan, Chief Executive Officer, NIIT Limited said, “During FY17, we invested in the Renewal & Growth Phase of our Transformation Strategy, with emphasis on Digital Transformation of NIIT as well as supporting Digital Transformation of our clients. We delivered a strong operational performance for Q4 & FY17, in spite of significant turbulence due to Demonetization and Forex Loss.”
Mr. Sapnesh Lalla, CEO Designate, NIIT Limited said, “NIIT’s Corporate Learning Group delivered strong revenue growth of 90% YoY during Q4 on the back of significantly higher strategic sourcing revenue. The overall revenue visibility at Q4 stood at USD 248.7 Mn up 24% YoY. We added 2 new MTS clients this quarter, renewed 1 existing contract; and received letters of intent for 3 more global clients, making Q4 a landmark quarter”.

Corporate Learning Group (CLG) recorded revenues of Rs. 257.8Cr, up 90% YoY during Q4. Full year revenue for CLG was recorded at Rs 766.2 Cr, up 35% YoY. It added 2 new MTS customers in Q4, taking the total number of MTS customers to 34. Managed Training Services (MTS) portfolio contributed 97% to Q4 CLG revenue. Q4 Order intake of FY17 was up 43% YoY.

NIIT Canada led Consortium was selected by Real Estate Council of Ontario as the exclusive provider of mandatory education programs required to trade in Real Estate in Ontario, Canada. During this fiscal year, NIIT’s CLG business has added 4 new multi-year contracts and 4 renewals in the Telecom, Oil & Gas, Life Sciences, Technology, Manufacturing, Energy, and Mining sectors.
During the quarter, the B2B India team continued to strengthen its engagements with leading corporate clients like Wipro, ICICI, Reliance, Vodafone, Gionee, Maruti-Suzuki, Deloitte among many other blue-chip Indian & MNC firms in the country.
StackRouteTM, a pioneering initiative from NIIT successfully created a talent pool of hundreds of Digital innovators for the IT industry in a short span of a year. The initiative has received an overwhelming response from the industry. StackRoute currently services three of the Top Indian IT Services firms in Bangalore, Chennai & Delhi NCR. Based on an immersive product development experience, the path–breaking program focuses on creating elite full-stack programmers who are at the core of Digital Transformation initiatives worldwide.

During the year, NIIT further strengthened its operations for Training.com – a multi-modal learning platform, by entering into a partnership with IIM Calcutta to launch an exclusive program called LEAD – Learn Enhance Aspire and Deliver. The program is specifically designed for CXOs who seek to renew their business knowledge, managerial capabilities and sharpen their leadership acumen. Further, Training.com in association with IIM Calcutta announced the first batch of Executive Program in Digital and Social Media Marketing Strategy during the quarter.

​Within a short span of time, Training.com has generated more than 1.2 million visitors with over 2 million page views. Training.com has built a portfolio of 30 advanced courses including 5 marquee programs from IIM Calcutta. The learning platform has seen over 600 paid registrations to date, and generated a revenue visibility of over Rs 50 million. The programs have seen encouraging feedback from users and high course completion at over 90%.
Commenting on Training.com, Rajan Venkataraman, Chief Digital Officer, NIIT Ltd. said, “Since our inception, NIIT has been innovatively using technology to redefine the education and the training space. Aligning ourselves to the talent requirements of the industry in the wake of digital transformation we have further strengthened our multi-modal platform – Training.com this year. Through this platform, we aim to make high quality education and training available to aspiring professionals and youth across the globe using technology enabled delivery models. In particular, we are focused on partnering with the IT/ITES industry to address the critical need for Digital Skills.”
Skills & Careers Business (SNC) recorded Q4 net revenue of Rs. 75.1 Cr, up 3% YoY; and Q4 EBITDA of Rs 3.1 Cr with an EBITDA margin of 4%, up from Rs -1.9 Cr EBITDA on a EBITDA margin of -3% in Q4 FY16, in spite of some residual impact of demonetization.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Prakash Menon, President, Global Retail Business, NIIT Limited said, “Encouraged by the positive response to our digiNxt career programs we are now developing programs to help youth fast track their career in today’s hi-tech environment. India’s Nxt Tech Star is one such initiative. We are partnering closely with many of India’s engineering colleges, to address the urgent critical shortage of Digital skilled fresh IT workforce for the IT/ITES industry.”

Renewing its commitment to building India’s Nxt Gen IT workforce, NIIT launched diginxt ‘India’s Nxt Tech Star’ movement, a hunt for the next gen techie who can showcase real App ideas to the world.

During the quarter, NIIT unveiled its biggest Big Data talent training base at Guiyang City in China to conduct IT and Big Data training for university graduates, working professionals and government employees in Guizhou province. Further, NIIT launched its first specialized IT center in Hoa Sen, Vietnam to create talent pool for Digitalization of Vietnam, and unveiled its Centre of Excellence in Bangladesh.

NIIT.tv entered into a tie-up with Buddy4Study – India’s leading scholarship platform during the quarter. Under this tie-up select scholarships from Buddy4Study will be displayed on NIIT.tv, allowing interested users to search and apply for scholarships relevant to their profile. NIIT.tv now has over 6,50,000 registered users from 175 Countries.

During the quarter, NIIT Imperia – Centre for Advanced Learning Institute along with IIM Calcutta announced a fresh batch for Advanced Program for Marketing Professionals (APMP). This is a unique program specially designed to equip managers and practitioners with cutting edge knowledge on both strategic & tactical issues in sales and marketing. NIIT Imperia also announced the sixth batch for Executive Program in Business Management (EPBM) along with IIM Lucknow.

NIIT further strengthened its Banking portfolio during the year, by bagging contracts from leading Public Sector Banks namely – United Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra and Bank of Baroda.
MindChampion Learning Systems Limited (MLSL) registered net revenue of Rs. 28.2Cr during the quarter; and an EBITDA of Rs 2.9 Cr and EBITDA margin of 10%. In Q4 it added 392 schools to its customer base, up 221% YoY. Go forward revenues from non-asset based private school business, grew 49% YoY in Q4, and 29% in FY17.

Mr. Gavin Dabreo, CEO of MLSL said, “FY ‘17 was focused on building stability in operations and increasing efficiency. MLSL is now poised for accelerated growth. We aim to redefine the school learning space by delivering Technology enabled outcome linked products.

During the quarter, MLSL launched state-of-the-art NIIT Nguru Practice Plus – an academically designed online solution for K-12 that enables continuous practice and assessment this quarter. Nguru MathPlus – a unique solution designed for fostering mathematical skills using colours, shapes and real-life examples was also unveiled.

Other Q4 Highlights:
· NIIT ranked as ‘India’s Most Trusted Training Brand’ for 5th year in a row, by Brand Trust Report, 2017.
· NIIT named to TrainingIndustry.com’s Top 20 IT Training Companies List for 10th consecutive year.
· Training.com won ‘eEducation Services of the Year’ – Online educational services award 2017 by Franchise India.