Infosys sees profits fall

Srinivas: "Hopefully the business environment will not come up with any surprises this year"

Indian IT services company Infosys has reported a profit drop of 3.6 per cent to 15.82bn rupees (£214m) from 16.41bn rupees (£222m) a year earlier.

However, the results were better than analysts expectations of a decline to about 14.8bn rupees (£200m).

Revenue at the outsourcer also fell by 0.8 per cent to 57.41bn rupees (£778m) from 57.86bn rupees (£784m) in the previous year.

Overall, Infosys added 32 new clients to its portfolio, the majority were US companies from the financial services, manufacturing and telecom sectors.

According to the firm's head of Europe, BG Srinivas, the company has not had a single new client win in the UK during the third quarter, but increased work done for its existing British customers, particularly within retail and to a lesser extent utilities.

"While there has been a surge in [new work] in the US, Europe is lagging behind and seeing much less growth. It will take some time for things to ramp up there, possibly three to six months," Srinivas told Computing.

Srinivas added that revenue for the consulting arm of Infosys was flat for the period, but that the division is "still seeing traction" in areas such as package implementation and business transformation.

Infosys is well positioned for 2010 by comparison with its peers, said Srinivas, owing to the planned increase of its presence in Europe with an emphasis on research and development. It is also looking to establish a hiring programme that aims to recruit 25,000 people worldwide, to areas including package implementation, consulting, client engagement and sales.

"All these investments are paying off as clients' sentiments and the economic climate improve. Hopefully the business environment will not come up with any surprises [this year]," he said.

For the current financial year, Infosys expects revenue of between $4.75bn (£2.95bn) and $4.76bn, up by between 1.8 per cent and two per cent on the previous year.