Onward Technologies Achieves the Goal of Net Debt Zero in FY 19-20

Mumbai: Onward Technologies Ltd. (BSE: 517536 | NSE: ONWARDTEC) announces its results for Financial Year 2019-20, ending 31st March 2020.

Onward Technologies Ltd. (BSE: 517536 | NSE: ONWARDTEC) announces its results for Financial Year 2019-20, ending 31st March 2020.

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE & HIGHLIGHTED RATIOS

Revenue was Rs 272.60 crores, up 4% from FY 18-19
EBITDA was Rs 24.43 crores, up 3.5% from FY 18-19
PAT was Rs 6.23 crores
Dividend of Rs 1.5/- per equity share has been recommended
EPS was at Rs 3.90 per share

Commenting on the company performance, Managing Director, Mr. Jigar Mehta said, “I’m pleased to share the FY 19-20 annual performance of the company where we achieved our top primary goal of Net Debt Zero at a consolidated level. This was possible with the phenomenal effort of our entire team globally with high level focus on customer service & providing superior quality deliverables on time- every time.

We achieved the Zero Net Debt goal in early Q3 & since then aggressively started investment in hiring large number of talented people for new practice lines. Covid-19 took us by complete surprise & we were not prepared for the total client shutdown in March and early Q1 of FY 20-21. This had a major impact on our Q4 performance along with the one-time hit of pre-planned closure of loss-making initiatives. Since then, we have taken corrective steps of bringing down the operation and infrastructure costs quickly to provide the flexibility and adaptability our clients expect from us.

Work from home (WFH) as engagement model is becoming new normal and our customers are accepting the change. We have successfully put entire ODCs under this model & are delivering with same effectiveness. This needed special focus on trainings, team and work management, data security aspects in terms of protecting customer IP, and necessary compliance agreements. The quick and bold BCP initiatives received lot of our client’s appreciation including new client wins which will help strengthen our relationship in the long run.”

Key highlights:
In an environment where customers are looking for reliable, strategic partners and not merely transactions, Onward Technologies continues to add to its portfolio of top global companies across industries. In FY 2019-20, we were selected as preferred supplier to 5 additional global 1000 companies. Most noteworthy is the fact that these partnerships are not only in our legacy engineering business but also in our new-age digital transformation and Industry 4.0 capabilities.

Adoption of IND AS accounting standards
Onward Technologies voluntarily adopted IND AS 116 accounting standards. The short term impact is a negative impact on profitability of Rs 1.19 crores, but this ensures the aim of becoming a global organisation is not diluted.

IT Refunds
An amount of approximately Rs 11+ crores remains due to the Company in the form of tax refunds. Our focus is to aggressively shore up these funds in the coming quarters, and further strengthen the overall cash position of the Company.

Employee satisfaction
As Onward Technologies enters the 30th year of operations, the organisation remains committed as ever to engage, retain and nurture top talent. Introduction of the ESOP 2019 scheme is one of the steps in this direction.