Update: Infosys Q3 net up 33% at Rs 1,641 cr

Infosys Technologies, India's second largest software services exporter, today has reported a better-than-expected Q3 consolidated net profit of Rs 1,641 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 as against Rs 1,231 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

According to a release issued by Infosys to the BSE today, the Q3FY09 topline has increased 35.5% to Rs 5,786 crore from Rs 4,271 crore in Q3FY08, beating the recession blues which is clouding the global businesses.

The Q3 diluted EPS (Earnings Per Share) is up 33% at Rs 28.63 as against Rs 21.47 a year ago.

The operating profit for the third quarter was up by a healthy 45% at Rs 2,031 crore. On a sequential basis, the net profit has moved up by 14.5 per cent while the topline has increased by 6.7 per cent. 

The company was helped by the depreciating rupee even as it added 30 clients during the third quarter.

“In a challenging environment, our focus is on creating value for clients, running an optimized business, and evolving our business model that will allow us to emerge stronger when the global economy starts recovering,” said S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies.

The company which sets the tone for the Indian IT industry outlook has marginally upped its outlook for the current fiscal stating that its full year revenues will be up by around 30 per cent.

“On a constant currency basis, pricing declined by 1.8 per cent during the quarter,” said S D Shibulal, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys. “We are comfortable with the current pricing environment and believe that the pricing could get impacted if the situation worsens further.”

“Our robust and flexible operating and financial models position us well in the current uncertain economic environment,” said V Balakrishnan, Chief Financial Officer, Infosys.

“Our operating margins during the quarter increased primarily due to depreciation of rupee which was to some extent offset by the depreciation of other major currencies against the US dollar.”

During the quarter, Infosys and its subsidiaries added 5,997 employees (gross). The net addition during the quarter was 2,772 taking the employee count to 1,03,078. “We have seen a decline in attrition this quarter,” said T V Mohandas Pai, Member of the Board and Head – HRD and Education & Research, Infosys.

On a stand-alone basis, the company's December quarter net profit grew 34.7% to Rs 1,598 crore when compared with Rs 1,186 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2007. Total income was up 35.8% at Rs 5,429 crore from Rs 3,999 crore.