TCS sees growth across verticals, geographies

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country's largest software exporter, today said it had witnessed growth in all its market geographies and across all verticals.

"All our markets have witnessed growth, whether it is US, UK, Europe, India, Asia Pacific or Latin America. All our markets have grown sequentially. We have grown across all verticals, whether it is banking, retail or manufacturing.

"Services have also seen a pretty balanced growth. We have also had a good uptake in enterprise solutions, in addition to some growth in consulting as well," TCS CEO and MD N Chandrasekharan said.

He said the company saw more growth coming from the telecom vertical.

"Last quarter I had said that telecom has grown, but we need one or two quarters of growth. I would say deal closure has been very good. So even though you don't see a substantial growth in the current quarter, telecom is going to do well going forward," he said.

He said that services like infrastructure have done well consistently. In terms of deals, he said that the company has signed ten large deals during the period– two each from banking and retail, and one each across all the other sectors like insurance, and life sciences.

"Our deal pipeline looks healthy and we continue to hire people. We have hired 11,981 people during this quarter. We have added 40 new clients," Chandrasekharan said.

He also said that while technology budgets of clients are still being set for the next fiscal year, there is little doubt that technology is a key resource to help global businesses optimise their operations and fuel growth in the current economic climate.

"We continue to focus on managing our operations optimally in the face of increased external volatility. We have increased operating margins significantly by taking the benefits of growth, exchange movements and by keeping a strong focus on cost management," TCS CFO S Mahalingam said.

He said that while rupee depreciation aided margin expansion, net earnings were hurt due to foreign exchange losses. TCS said it had a forex loss of Rs 300.81 crore in the third quarter, versus a gain of Rs 52.16 crore in the year ago quarter.

"The level of currency and market volatility has only risen in the past three months and we are adapting our strategies accordingly," Mahalingam said.