Infotech majors steal the thunder in second quarter

TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Satyam aggregate profit rises 48.31 per cent to Rs 2,015,05 crore.

Four IT majors "" Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro Technologies, Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computer Services "" saw their aggregate net profit rise 48.31 per cent to Rs 2,015,05 crore on a 26.8 per cent increase in the combined revenue to Rs 8,915.69 crore in the July-September quarter.

While TCS, Wipro and Infosys achieved $1 billion revenue in the first six months of the current fiscal, Satyam Computer is likely to join the $1 billion revenue club by the end of the current financial year.

TCS and Infosys each clocked a half-yearly net profit of over Rs 1,000 crore, while Wipro has missed the mark by Rs 100 crore.

For Satyam, net profit is expected to touch the Rs 1,000 crore level on for the entire year. While TCS outperformed its peers on the net profit growth front, Satyam posted the biggest revenue growth.

Thanks to one-time charges of Rs 196.47 crore from the profits for the quarter ended September 2004, TCS net profit during the quarter ended September 2005 rose 114.71 per cent to Rs 620.32 crore.

The company's 21.26 per cent growth in revenue (Rs 2959.62 crore) was the lowest among the four IT companies.

Satyam's consolidated net profit, as per Indian GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), rose 34.2 per cent to Rs 237.33 crore from Rs 176.86 crore in Q2 last fiscal.

Its net sales grew 33.97 per cent to Rs 1,154.96 crore from Rs 862.08 crore. The rise in net profit was partly due to a 31.6 per cent surge in other income to Rs 31.55 crore from Rs 23.97 crore. Both net profit and sales beat market expectations.

Infosys, which crossed the billion-dollar revenue mark in fiscal 2004, will turn into a multi-billion entity by the end of the year.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 606 crore for the quarter ended September 2005, up 35.57 per cent. Its revenue was at Rs 2,294 crore, up 31.14 per cent from the corresponding quarter last year. The Q2 profits included a tax writeback of Rs 20 crore due to an assessment settled overseas.

Wipro revenue grew 26.7 per cent to Rs 2,506.80 crore for the second quarter ended September 2005. However, its net profit grew 16.10 per cent to Rs 478 crore.

The poor profit growth can largely be attributed to a fall in operating margins in its BPO services, to 13 per cent in the quarter ended September 2005 from 22 per cent during the corresponding quarter last year.