Infosys bets on digital growth, to invest more

Global software major Infosys bets on digital technologies and would invest more on its platform to spur growth, a top official said on Tuesday.

"We are focusing extensively on digital where we see growth and will keep investing in it, as it has contributed 31 per cent ($905 million) to our total revenue (Rs 20,609 crore) in the second quarter," Infosys Chief Executive Salil Parekh told IANS here.

Upbeat about the company winning a $2-billion in the quarter under review (Q2), Parekh said such deals were quite lumpy, as they were huge in some quarters and not so huge in other quarters.

"We anticipate that the $2-billion deal wins this quarter will fluctuate ahead. We have a good pipeline. Large deal wins will have an impact over the next several quarters," said Parekh at a presser on the company's robust revenue and net profit growth in Q2.

The city-based company's Chief Operating Officer (COO) U.B. Pravin Rao said the company had seven large deals in the US, four in Europe and three in the rest of the world.

"The deals were made in financial services, manufacturing, high-tech and other sectors. Large deals come with aggressive price points. Over the last few years, we have said we want to be aggressive in the market," said Rao.

Noting that the US economy was strong, Parekh said clients were looking at large discretionary spend and the company had also seen large investments being made in automation and artificial intelligence (AI).

"There is a lot of growth they (clients) want to drive in their businesses, they want to go on digital transformation. We see a positive view. There are discussions with the clients with reference to the trade wars and Brexit," pointed out Parekh.

The global IT firm had 23 clients generating sales over $100 million each for it during the second quarter.

Though the company has had a good traction in the British market, the top executive said the company would see what response it would receive after Brexit.

The US market has been contributing over 60 per cent of the company's export revenue over the years.

On acquisitions, Parekh said though they were driven at places where there was high growth, the company looked at middle ground in terms of valuation.

The company's consulting arm Infosys Consulting in September acquired 60 per cent stake in Trusted Source, a subsidiary of Singapore-based IT services firm, Temasek Management Services.

The Bengaluru-based firm said it was looking at hiring an increased number of employees, but did not disclose the details.

A net addition of 7,834 employees was made by the company as of September 30, compared to the same quarter last year.

--IANS

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