Infy beats estimates, Q2 net zooms 53%

The tech party is continuing if the latest quarterly results from software major Infosys Technologies are any indication. Beating market estimates, the company has posted a 53 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit (after minority interest) for the second quarter ended September 30, 2006 at Rs 929 crore compared to Rs 606 crore posted in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Riding on the back of increasing outsourcing demand, the company's consolidated total income also increased by 50.4 per cent to Rs 3,451 crore for the reporting quarter as against Rs 2,294 crore.

With the profits exceeding earlier estimates of 40-45 per cent growth, Infy shares - which shot up by 6 per cent in the morning - gained 3.95 per cent at Rs 1,981.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Other tech shares like TCS (up by 3.3 per cent), Wipro (1.7 per cent) and Satyam (1.8 per cent) also moved up in a weak market.

Infy (with a market valuation of (Rs 1.10 lakh crore) also overtook NTPC as the third largest in the market cap ranking behind ONGC and Reliance.

Meanwhile, buoyed by this growth - termed by analysts as stronger than expected - the company has also revised its guidance upwards and is expecting its revenue base to cross $3 billion by 2007.

"Our business model provides a compelling value proposition to clients in a flat world. Our robust organic growth coupled with investments in various strategic areas helped us to grow faster in this environment. We have revised our guidance to cross $3 billion in revenues this fiscal," Infosys CEO and managing director Nandan Nilekani said.

"Infosys results are way ahead of our expectations this quarter. The growth has come on the back of robust client addition and increase in the billing rates. The company has also benefited from an increasing trend towards the offshore revenue," Angel Broking's analyst Phani Shekhar said.

The company has also announced an interim dividend of Rs 5 per share compared to Rs 3.25 for the corresponding period in the previous year. Laying down the vision for the coming quarter the company expects its revenues for the quarter ending December 31, 2006 to be in the range of Rs 3,602 crore and Rs 3,625 crore.

"We saw strong double-digit sequential growth during the quarter. Package implementation, testing, consulting and business process management services are growing fast. We have built the necessary scale and momentum into these services for rapid growth," Infosys COO and joint managing director S. Gopalakrishnan said.

The company and its subsidiaries have also added 45 new clients and 66,150 employees during the quarter. "The pricing environment continues to be stable with an upward bias. Our continued focus on offering multiple services and our end-to-end capability in delivering solutions is giving us a strategic advantage in growing client accounts," Group Head-Worldwide Sales & Customer Delivery S D Shibulal said.

The company is also planning to sell up to 30 million shares in its latest offering of sponsored American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), supposed to be valued at $ 1.5 billion.

iGate net rises 80%

NEW DELHI: IT services provider iGate Global Solutions today reported 80 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit in second quarter ending September 30, to Rs 10.6 crore. Revenues for this quarter increased by 30 per cent as compared to last fiscal to Rs 202.6 crore, the company said. iGate attributed the increase in net profit vis-a-vis revenues to better margins and higher billing rates from bigger clients.

Mastek Q1 net up 42%

MUMBAI: IT major Mastek posted a 42.15 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 17.94 crore for the quarter ended September 30 from Rs 12.62 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The total income increased 42.48 per cent to Rs 124.13 crore from Rs 87.12 crore from the year ago period. The group's total income increased to Rs 198.92 crore from Rs 153.09 crore for the year ago period.

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