Infosys forecasts revenue rise, flags special dividend

(Reuters) - Infosys on Friday forecast its revenue in the current fiscal year would rise by 6 to 8 percent as India's second-biggest software services exporter said it would pay shareholders a special dividend.

The results were the first for a full quarter under chief executive Salil Parekh who joined Infosys in January with the task of restoring growth and ensuring peace between Infosys founders and the board after an acrimonius spat last year.

The forecast for full-year revenue growth was slightly below brokerage firm Macquarie's 6.5 to 8.5 percent forecast.

The IT firm said it would stick to its policy of returning up to 70 percent of its free cash, adding that it had identified up to 130 billion rupees which would be paid to shareholders including a special dividend payout worth 26 billion rupees.

Net profit rose 2.4 percent to 36.90 billion rupees ($566 million) in the three months ended March 31, Infosys said.

Eighteen analysts had on average expected net profit of 37.09 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Infosys said its revenue from operations rose by 5.6 percent to 180.83 billion rupees in the quarter. ($1 = 65.2200 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta and Jessica Kuruthukulangara in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir and Alexander Smith)