Infosys Q3 Revenues up by 8%
After the recent corporate tremors involving Satyam and Wipro in the
Indian tech sector, eyes were on Infosys’ financial results to restore
some confidence among the investment and global buyer community. The
company has announced its results today (Jan. 13) for the quarter
ended Dec. 31, 2008.
The
third quarter revenues are at $ 1,171 million, up 8% from the
corresponding quarter last fiscal; in constant currency 14.6%. While
the earnings per American Depositary Share (ADS) increased to $0.58
from $0.55 in the corresponding quarter last fiscal, YoY
(year-on-year) growth was 5.5%.
Infosys and its subsidiaries bagged 30 new clients during the quarter.
On the employment side, it hired 5,997 employees (net 2,772) for the
quarter and now it has 103,078 employees as on December 31, 2008.
“In a
challenging environment, our focus is on creating value for clients,
running an optimized business, and evolving our business model that
will allow us to emerge stronger when the global economy starts
recovering,” said S. Gopalakrishnan, CEO and managing director,
Infosys.
While
the company has been focusing on global markets, it’s trying to
strengthen its position in the domestic arena as well. For its retail
solution ShoppingTrip360, for example, Infosys partnered with India’s
leading mobile operator Bharti Airtel for latter’s Direct-To-Home TV
service through Infosys’ Digital Convergence Platform.
Traditionally, most Indian companies operate in banking, financial
sectors and for enterprise resource planning applications. That holds
true for Infosys also. It bagged some orders from these vertical
segments.
For
fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, it expects consolidated revenues to
be in the range of $4.67 billion and $4.71 billion with YoY growth of
11.8% – 12.8% and in constant currency 15.6% – 17.6%.
It’s
believed that Infosys results will have some catalytic effect on the
Indian IT sector at least for the short term. However, all leading
tech players will have to soon gear up and operate in the new global
software ecosystem that is driven by clouds, mobiles, and webs.
The
backend programming services in which most Indian players have been
specializing for years are gradually losing their sheen, leaving wafer
thin margins for the service providers. They need to quickly create a
USP for them to operate and survive in the cut-throat global markets
that have new rules of the game. And that USP can no longer be “cheap
services” for which India is generally known.
Photo courtesy: Infosys
