Largely unaffected by visa issue, planning EU expansion: Mphasis

Bengaluru-based firm gets 70% of its business from the US, 20% from Europe, rests from other parts

IT company Mphasis doesn't see much impact of the ongoing visa row on its business as it plans to invest and expand more in Europe.

"I think our footprint on visa front is far smaller and manageable compared to some of the larger players. We continued very diligently to make sure plans are in place to avoid any disruption. There hasn't been any. In case there is any knee-jerk or short term event, we are protected from that," Mphasis Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Nitin Rakesh told PTI in an interview.

The Bengaluru-based firm gets 70 per cent of its business from the US, 20 per cent from Europe and rests from other parts of the world.

Mphasis has registered a 17.6 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 184.1 crore for the period ended March 31 compared to a net profit of Rs 156.5 crore in the same period a year ago.

For the year ended March 31, Mphasis posted 25.3 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 791.6 crore compared to Rs 631.5 crore in 2015-16.

Rakesh said the company has plans to invest in Europe and grow its business in the region during the current fiscal.

"Over the next two quarters, we also hope to make some investments in Europe. Less than 20 per cent of our revenues is coming from that region. Based on my personal experience and what we are seeing in the region, there is an opportunity for us to find higher-than-market growth," Rakesh said.

Private equity firm Blackstone acquired Mphasis from PC maker Hewlett Packard.

Rakesh said that the financial year 2016-17 was about stabilising the company's business with HP and in the current fiscal, Mphasis will look at bringing growth in that part of the business.

"The turnaround story for FY18 will the HP business that we have had over a period. As we all know that business was declining and in a way diluting overall company performance in terms of growth. FY17 was all about stabilisation of that business. Our attempt in FY18 is to bring that business back to growth," he said.

The company has announced a partnership with DXC Technology to transform and modernise enterprise applications for the public, private and hybrid cloud.

HP services business was merged with CSC which is now called DXC.

Rakesh said that Mphasis has distinct relationships within the HP group and its four businesses have transformed or merged with other entities.

"We are also moving from just being the execution arm or extension arm of HP's delivery to now actually being a partner with DXC. That moves us from back office to front office. It moves us to the front end of the transformation deals. I think FY18 is going to be probably a key year for us to find opportunities for growth," Rakesh said.