Infosys Q1 net profit soars 39% to Rs 388 cr

Information technology bellwether says the best is yet to come.

Beating its April guidance, Infosys Technologies has posted a 38.61 per cent increase in first-quarter consolidated revenues to Rs 1,517.38 crore, and a 39.23 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 388.34 crore, compared with the corresponding period last year.

India's IT bellwether indicated that the best is yet to come when it announced the results.

Standalone revenue of Infosys alone, exclusing subsidiaries etc, for the quarter was Rs 1471.39 crore, up 36 per cent over the previous period, while net profit was Rs 394.47 crore, up nearly 42 per cent.

The company had projected a revenue of Rs 1,363-Rs 1,371 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2004.

Post-split earnings per share rose 38.08 per cent to Rs 14.54.

"We have seen a strong revenue growth during the quarter. Our robust and scalable business model, along with our track record for superior execution, has enabled us to respond quickly to enhanced business opportunities in the market place," Nandan M Nilekani, chief executive officer, president and managing director, Infosys, said.

As a result this robust growth, the company has also revised the outlook for the entire current fiscal year to Rs 6,731-6,772 crore in consolidated revenues under the Indian GAAP against the earlier guidance of Rs 5,994-6,041 crore. This represents a full year growth of 39-40 per cent. EPS for full year is expected to increase by 34 per cent to Rs 62.70.

Under the US GAAP, consolidated net revenues for the full year ending March 31, 2005 is projected to be in the range of $1,476-$1,485 million.

Consolidated earnings per American depository share is expected to be $1.37, which is a growth of 33 per cent.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis (i.e. from the quarter ended March 31, 2004 to the quarter ended June 30, 2004), Infosys has registered a topline growth of 12.44 per cent, while net profit has increased by 15.84 per cent.

For the second quarter ending September 30, 2004, the company's revenues is projected to be between Rs 1,631- 1,645 crore, which is a year-on-year growth of 42-43 per cent. The EPS is expected to be Rs 15.10, reflecting an year-on-year growth of 33 per cent.

"We continue to see a stable pricing environment. The restructuring into integrated business units has created multiple engines of growth with strong leadership," S Gopalakrishnan, chief operating officer, Infosys, said.

Infosys added 29 new clients during the quarter ended June 30, 2004, while the net addition of employees was 2,305, taking the total number of employes to 27,939 people.

Interestingly, North America accounted for 65.2 per cent of the business during the quarter ended June 30, 2004. This compares with 74.7 per cent during the corresponding quarter last year.

For the same period, Europe has increased its share to 22.2 per cent from 17.4 per cent. Revenues from fixed price has also decreased to 29.7 per cent in the quarter ended June 30, 2004, compared with 35.9 per cent in the previous quarter.

Progeon, the BPO subsidiary, registered sequential growth of 21 per cent in revenues to touch $7.2 million during the quarter ended June 30, 2004. During the quarter, it added two new clients. With this, it has four independent clients and 12 clients who are also clients of Infosys.