The Hindu : Business : Infosys on hiring spree, net at Rs. 448 crores

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 13, 2004

Business

Business

Infosys on hiring spree, net at Rs. 448 crores

By Our Staff Reporter

The Chief Executive Officer of Infosys Technologies, Nandan Nilekani (right), and the Chief Financial Officer, T. V. Mohandas Pai, at a press conference in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: G. R. N. Somashekar

BANGALORE, OCT. 12. They are not indicative of how the rest of the Indian IT services industry is doing, but Infosys Technologies' results for the three months to September, announced on Tuesday, certainly show, where quality offshore work was on offer, customers were happy to take it. Nandan M. Nilekani, President and Chief Executive Officer, underlined that fact, by saying "Offshoring has become a mega-trend.''

In anticipation of more such business, the company hired 5,010 fresh recruits in the latest quarter alone, over half of them campus recruits, taking the employee strength to 32,949. Hema Ravichander, Global Human Resources Head, said, "We have reached close to 8,000 recruits this year. We expect to add some 2,000-2,500 recruits more than the higher limit of 10,000 anticipated at the beginning of the year. So another 4,000-4,500 will be hired in the coming months.''

The company posted a net profit of Rs. 447.37 crores for the quarter under reference, a sequential increase of 15 per cent. Revenues increased by 11.3 per cent to Rs. 1,749.30 crores. The net profit increased by 48.64 per cent and the income by 51.88 per cent year on year.

100 per cent dividend

Earnings per share (EPS) increased to Rs. 16.71, up 48.64 per cent year on year (with one $ Rs. 45.91). The company has declared an interim dividend of Rs. 5 per share (100 per cent on equity shares of par value of Rs. 5), as compared with Rs. 3.63 (adjusted for bonus) for the corresponding period last year. (The company declared three for one bonus shares in July).

New clients

During the quarter, Infosys added 32 new clients, a release said. They included "a major EU retailer for work on radio frequency identification, a premier U.K. based aerospace services company for design and analysis of an aircraft sub-system and a well known EU automobile company,'' the release said.

On the telecom front, "one of the largest wholesale telecom carriers in the EU, a large U.S. based carrier providing voice and data services and a premier communications service provider'' were among Infosys' clients, the release said.

Other projects include work on re-writing the customer information systems of a large energy utility and collaboration on developing a storage management product with a top technology company, the release said. The company had also tried to boost its efforts at diversification, including three net client gains on the consulting front by its U.S. based subsidiary, Infosys Consulting, and new services being offered such as infrastructure management services.

Consulting front

Infosys Consulting (IC), now had 23 people working for it, with some 13 people hired in the September quarter, Ms. Ravichander said. During the quarter, it earned revenues of about `a half a million dollars,' said S. D. Shibulal, Infosys' Global Head for Customer Delivery. "The combination of world class consultants and global delivery of technology solutions has been accepted as a successful business model by our customers,'' said Stephen R. Pratt, Infosys Consulting's Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. On the nature of work the company was doing, Mr. Pratt said, "For instance, we are helping the CEO of a firm, who has a $100 million to spend on transforming his company's business.'' IC was `advising clients' on parts of their future game plans. "The enterprise business is a huge area of opportunity,'' he said.

Forecast

For the three months to December, Infosys aims to increase its income sequentially by about 7 per cent to between Rs. 1,869 crores and Rs. 1,882 crores. The EPS would be Rs. 17.10, the release said. For the full year, income was expected to be in the range of Rs. 7,132 crores to Rs. 7,160 crores, with EPS of Rs. 67.

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