Infosys to scale to 3 billion dollar revenue in 2006-07

Bangalore, Oct 11: Software major Infosys today revised its guidance for the current fiscal upward and expected to cross dollar three billion registering a 45.5 to 46 per cent growth.

Announcing the results for Q2 for 2006-07, CEO and Managing Director Nandan M Nilekani said ''our robust organic growth coupled with investments in various strategic areas helped us to grow faster''.

For the quarter the company registered a consolidated income of Rs 3,451 crore with the year on year (YoY) growth being 50.4 per cent. Net profit after tax and before exceptional items was Rs 930 crore for the quarter with a YoY growth of 52 per cent.

The Company announced an interim dividend of Rs Five per share, 100 per cent on par value of Rs five per share.

The company had added 45 new clients during the quarter with gross addition of 10,795 employees (net 7,741). As on September 30 there were 66,150 employees on the rolls of Infosys and subsidiaries.

Mr Nilekani said ''our business model provides a compelling value proposition to clients in a flat world'' For the current fiscal the Company expected to earn an income between Rs 13,853 crore and Rs 13,899 crore with YOY growth of 45.5 per cent to 46 per cent.

Company President, COO and Joint Managing Director S Gopalakrishnan said that the company had registered a 13 per cent 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'' he added.

The company said as the business world is 'flattened' by a confluence of disruptive trends, Infosys helped companies across industries to compete effectively. Faster innovation was a key shift that companies must make to win in the flat world.

Infosys has commenced a multi-year, multi-million-dollar infrastructure services engagement with a US dollar two billion company that designs and sells Internet Protocol (IP) routers for private and public access networks.

Infosys Consulting Inc. added nine new clients including an asset maintenance and servicing company in Australia and a recognised market leader in smartphones, handhelds, software and accessory solutions.

''The pricing environment continues to be stable with an upward bias'' said S D Shibulal, Member of the Board and Group Head, Worldwide Sales&Customer Delivery. ''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'' he added.

The Company said its universal banking solution Finacle registered key wins in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, including two banks in Nigeria and a leading bank headquartered in Bangladesh. Finacle was rolled out at DBS Bank's Indian operations, HPB,Croatia, and Dunbar Bank, a part of Zurich Financial Services, UK. Two Indian banks, UCO Bank and Bank of Baroda, also went live on Finacle during the quarter.

During the quarter, Infosys filed for 14 patents in India and the US for process innovation in IT services. As of September 30, 2006, Infosys has filed for 58 patents in India and the US.

As on September 30 cash and cash equivalents, including investments in liquid mutual funds was Rs 4,327 crore (Rs 3,793 crore as on September 30, 2005). During the quarter, Infosys incurred capital expenditure of Rs 330 crore. Operating cash flows during the quarter ended September 30, 2006 were Rs 961 crore (Rs 629 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005).

''The rupee depreciated marginally during the quarter with consequent benefit to us'', said V Balakrishnan, Chief Financial Officer. The operating margins also improved despite absorbing wage increases and other strategic investments he added.

The Company had hiredd 10,795 employees (gross), which is the highest employee addition in any quarter Mr T V Mohandas Pai, Member of the Board and Head of HRD and Education and Research said.

He said the Company was increasing its investment in education and training and improve the knowledge base of entry level talent through the Infosys Campus Connect programme. It had also put in place a long term retention bonus plan for senior employees during the quarter.

Progeon Limited, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys Technologies Limited, has been renamed Infosys BPO Limited effective August 29, 2006. It added three customers, including one of the world's largest telecom carriers and a leading US-based global provider of property, casualty and specialty insurance.

Infosys renamed its Chinese susidiary as Infosys Technologies (China) Co. Limited during the quarter. The Chinese arm was partnering with a leading global provider of integrated communications solutions and embedded electronic solutions to manage its marketing investments and trade promotions through the global Retail Channel Management (RCM) initiative. A leading bank in Taiwan was using Infosys' expertise to build a robust knowledge management platform for its worldwide multi-channel banking operations. Infosys was also helping the bank in rationalising and maintaining its customer service platform.

UNI