India's Tech Mahindra beats quarterly revenue estimate

BENGALURU, July 16 (Reuters) - Indian software services provider Tech Mahindra's first-quarter revenue beat expectations on Thursday, with ‌growth in the firm's manufacturing segment and a ‌weak rupee helping the topline.

Revenue at India's fifth-largest IT firm rose ​17.7% year-on-year to 157.12 billion rupees ($1.63 billion) in the three months ended June 30. Analysts, on average, expected revenue of 154.76 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company ‌received an additional ⁠lift from the rupee's roughly 9% depreciation against the dollar over the past 12 months, ⁠as Indian IT firms typically bill overseas clients in foreign currencies while bearing most of their costs in rupees.

The ​firm reported ​28.5% year-on-year rise in profit ​in the quarter at ‌14.65 billion rupees, missing estimates of 15.63 billion rupees.

The communications division's revenue, which accounts for a third of the Pune-based company's total, rose 1.3%, while revenue at its manufacturing division - its second-largest, expanded 17.2% year-on-year.

Tech Mahindra's net new ‌order bookings rose to $1.08 billion ​from $809 million a year earlier. The ​firm announced partnerships with ​Telefonica Germany, Microsoft and robotics platform Viam ‌during the quarter.

Last week, larger ​peers Tata Consultancy ​Services and HCLTech first-quarter results surpassed street expectations on account of strong tech spending among financial services ​clients.

($1 = 96.3450 ​Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B and Surbhi ​Misra; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)