Infosys records 21% profit in Q1

Bengaluru: IT major Infosys on Friday reported a healthy 21.6 per cent growth in consolidated net profit for the first quarter, helped by increase in business from Europe and improved operational efficiency. The city-based firm posted a net profit of Rs2,886 crore for the quarter ended June 30 this fiscal against a net profit of Rs2,374 crore in the year-ago period.

Consolidated revenue for the reported quarter were up 13.3 per cent to Rs12,770 crore from Rs11,267 crore in the same quarter of 2013-14 fiscal.

Commenting on the performance, Infosys’ outgoing CEO and managing director S. D. Shibulal said, “We continue to enjoy the confidence of our clients by demonstrating superior execution capability and value realisation. I think we are leaving behind a stronger Infosys on which the team can actually capatilise on the foundation that has been laid over the last 33 years, and on the foundation which has been strengthened over the last three years”

However, Infosys’ employee attrition hit a record high of 19.5 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2014-15 fiscal from 16.9 per cent in the year-ago period, signalling that the internal woes of the country’s second largest IT services firm are not yet over. The firm has witnessed a spate of exits of its top level executives since June last year when co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy was called back from retirement to put the firm back on a growth trajectory. Commenting on attrition, Infosys COO U. B. Pravin Rao said, “Employee attrition rates are worrisome and we are implementing various initiatives to retain good talent.”

For 2014-15, Infosys retained its conservative revenue guidance of 7-9 per cent in dollar terms and 5.6-7.6 per cent in rupee terms, much below Nasscom’s industry growth outlook at 13-15 per cent in dollar terms. In US dollar terms, its consolidated net profit rose 15.3 per cent to $482 million in the April-June quarter of this fiscal, while revenues rose 7.1 per cent to $2.13 billion during the period. Infosys shares were trading at 1.01 per cent, up Rs 3326 apiece on BSE in the afternoon session. The Sensex was trading lower by 0.61 per cent at 25,218.40.