Mumbai: Country's largest software exporter TCS on Thursday reported a marginal dip in net profit at Rs 5,328 crore in December quarter due to lower margins, a tepid performance compared to rival Infosys that beat market expectations to log 13 per cent jump in profits.

The Tata group firm had posted a post-tax profit of Rs 5,333 crore under the IGAAP system of accounting in the December quarter last year, while its profit in the preceding September quarter stood at Rs 5,244 crore.

TCS' operating margin dipped by 2.88 percent as compared to last year, to 26.9 percent, but was up 0.21 percent over the preceding September quarter.

However, TCS CEO and Managing Director N Chandrasekaran said this a good performance in a seasonally weak quarter which witnesses holidays and forloughs. He pointed to a 2.9 percent growth in revenues over the preceding quarter at Rs 24,501 crore. On a year-on-year basis, TCS revenue in December quarter 2014 rose by 15 percent.

He said a bulk of the push has come from increase in pricing and some help has come from a jump in volumes and currency, while offshore movement has affected it marginally.

However, on the yearly growth perspective, Chandrasekaran, who had earlier opined that FY15 will be better than FY14 for the company, hinted at the picture being not so good with only a few months left in this fiscal.

He said TCS has achieved a growth of only about 4.74 percent and it would have been better had it been higher by 40 basis points, which would have given it the confidence of bettering FY14 performance.

"When you miss that, you can never (catch up). I cannot say that we will catch in Q4," Chandrasekaran said, adding, "You make a comment like that once and you learn from it."

He, however, maintained that the company continues to be optimistic about the future and sees a better deal pipeline, no client-specific problems and there are positives on 2015 budgets from the clients as well.

The only challenging areas pointed out by the company were in the energy space, where the recent fall in oil prices has made it difficult for client companies, he said, adding that United Kingdom as a geography is also facing pressures where it has acquired Diligenta business.

Dipen Shah, Head- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities, said: "The results have not provided any positive surprise. The in-line results for 3Q reflect the impact of seasonality as well as softness in a few verticals like Insurance and Energy / Utilities."

Last week, Infosys had reported a 13 percent jump in consolidated net profit for the third quarter to Rs 3,250 crore, helped by increase in business and clients from North America, as also from India.

In the reporting quarter, TCS added one client of over USD 100 million, three with billing of over USD 50 million and twenty of over USD 5 million.

The gross employee addition was at 16,561, taking the total strength to 3.18 lakh, while the utilisation was at 86.7 per cent excluding trainees.

The company's attrition stood at 13.4 percent and the management said it would like to keep it at 12-12.5 percent range, but the increase is not due to any layoffs being carried out, as being speculated on social media.

The "involuntary attrition", where an employee goes out without tendering her resignation, is a normal process which the company carries out each year, Chandrasekaran said, adding that only 1,000 jobs have been lost as part of the exercise.

There are a lot of lessons for the company from the criticism online and it will imbibe the same in the future, especially in the way it communicates, he said. Related Stories

Only 1,000 jobs axed in India due to non-performance: TCS

Asked about incentives to staff, TCS head of HR Ajoy Mukherjee said it is not considering any change, even though Infosys has gifted i-Phone smart phones to top talent.

Chandrasekaran said TCS will be paying 100 percent of the variable pay to employees this quarter.

Meanwhile, when asked about the currency movements, the company's chief financial officer Rajesh Gopinathan said there is "unprecedented volatility" in the market at present but there has been no change in the company's hedging policy and it continues to maintain a hedging book of USD 4 billion.

The company scrip gained 1.07 percent to close at Rs 2,545 a piece on the BSE, as against the 2.66 per cent gains in the broader Sensex on a surprise rate cut from RBI.

(PTI)