Double-digit growth turning point for IT industry: Infosys

BANGALORE - India’s IT bellwether Infosys Technologies Friday termed its return to double-digit growth in the second quarter (July-Sept) of this fiscal (2010-11) as a turning point for the resilient Indian IT industry and a sign of robust growth ahead.

“Registering double-digit growth after many quarters is a turning point because when downturn happened, lot of people felt the Indian IT industry may not be able to return to such high growth again,” Infosys Chief Executive S. Gopalakrishnan told reporters here.

Asserting that the IT industry was strong and has the potential to grow faster and much more, Gopalakrishnan said several Indian software firms have become global, offering a wide range of services, including consulting and business operations support.

“Over the decade, Indian IT firms have come off age and spread their operations across geographies to leverage their talent pool and resources to become a major contributor to export revenues, creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs and benefiting society at large,” he pointed out.

Noting that the industry was subject to ups and downs as any other sector, he said the double-digit growth had renewed confidence and was enabling companies to chalk out new business strategies, resume hiring in a big way and invest across service lines.

“It is a growth based on business model viability. We have also changed the strategy slightly to meet the varied and specific needs of our global clients. We need to consolidate our global operations and explore new markets across geographies,” Gopalakrishnan noted.

Returning to double digit growth in net profit and revenue during the second quarter under review, Infosys revised its revenue guidance for this fiscal (2010-11) again.

Consolidated revenue for fiscal 2011 will be around Rs.27,058 crore (Rs.271 billion), an increase of 19 percent year-on-year (YoY) and 1.7 percent higher than it projected in July (Rs.26,663 crore/Rs.267 billion), as per the Indian accounting standard.

Under the International Financial Regulatory System (IFRS), revenue is expected to be $6 billion, an increase of 25 percent YoY and five percent higher than its July projection of $5.8 billion.

Posting robust growth in second quarter, the company’s net profit at Rs.1,737 crore (Rs.17.37 billion) grew 13.2 percent YoY and 16.7 percent sequentially as per the Indian accounting standard.

Similarly, consolidated revenue grew 24.4 percent YoY and 12 percent sequentially to Rs.6,947 crore (Rs.69.47 billion) as per the Indian accounting standard.

Under the International Financial Regulatory System (IFRS), net income at $374 million is up 18 percent YoY and 14.7 percent sequentially, while gross income at $1.5 billion is up 29.6 percent YoY and 10.2 percent from the previous quarter (April-June).

— Indo-Asian News Service