Sikka says Infosys to beat industry growth rate in 18-30 mths

Beating market expectations, Infosys had reported a 13 per cent jump in consolidated net profit for the third quarter

Once an IT bellwether, Infosys expects to regain its premier status and beat industry growth rates in the next 18 to 30 months.

The over $ 8 billion company's market performance has been improving with every quarter and its latest quarterly results are reflective of that, says its CEO Vishal Sikka.

"I would say another one and a half to two and a half years to beat the industry growth rate," Sikka told PTI.

He was asked about the time Infosys will take to regain its bellwether status and beat IT-ITeS industry growth rate.

Sikka, the first non-founder CEO of Infosys, was brought from German software major SAP last year to revive the company's fortunes.

"We had given a timeline. When Mr Murthy came back, he had given a three-year timeline starting with June 2013. I would say we are about half way into it and you have to give us a couple of years to finish that work," he added.

Nasscom, which represents over $ 120 billion IT-ITeS industry, expects the sector's exports to grow by 13-15% in 2014-15 fiscal as against 13% in 2013-14.

On the other hand, Infosys has given a revenue guidance of 7-9% in $ terms and 5.6-7.6% in rupee terms for the current financial year.

Substantiating his statement, Sikka said the firm has $ 5.53 billion is cash, zero debt and strong margin performance in the quarter.

"We increased our utilisation to 82.7% in the quarter. This was the highest level that we have seen in the last 11 years in any quarters. Our volume growth was 4.2%. This is the highest sequential volume growth in the last 3 years over any quarter," he said.

Beating market expectations, Infosys had reported a 13% jump in consolidated net profit for the third quarter at Rs 3,250 crore, helped by increase in business and clients from North America, as also from India.

The firm's consolidated revenue rose 5.9% to Rs 13,796 crore in the quarter ended December 31, while it maintained its revenue outlook for the entire fiscal.

Increasing its focus on software products and new age solutions like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Infosys also said it has expanded its innovation fund from the $ 100 million to $ 500 million, which will be used to invest in young firms world-wide.