While annualized sales declined 15%, annualized net profit was up 256% over the previous year. Aptech is ranked #24 in sales, #36 in profits, #41 in sales growth, #2 in profit growth and #17 in ROCE. Although Aptech’s profit growth was impressive, the overall IT education business continues to remain tough with the slowdown leading to low capacity utilization. In 2002, Aptech’s promoters separated the services segment from Aptech and merged the same with Hexaware Technologies as the low valuation of the education segment was affecting the software services as well. Recently, the promoters decided to offload their stake in Aptech to Chennai-based SSI. The IT education market is expected to remain weak and Aptech will find it tough to post a substantial improvement in performance.