Infosys Posts Strong Gains

India’s second largest outsourcing company, Infosys Technologies Ltd., on Tuesday announced robust growth in revenue and profits for the three month financial quarter ended September 30, due to its focus on a broad array of services to its clients.

The company’s revenue for the second quarter reached US$524 million up 38.3 percent from $379 million in the same quarter last year. The company’s net profit rose 42.3 percent to $138 million from $97 million in the same quarter last year.

Infosys added a net 6,390 employees during the quarter, bringing the total number of its employees to 46,196 as of September 30, 2005. The company also added 34 new clients during the quarter, taking the total number of clients to 450, Infosys said.

Infosys saw good growth in the volumes of its business both in Europe and North America, the company’s key markets, V. Balakrishnan, Infosys’ company secretary and senior vice president of finance, said in an interview Tuesday.

The prices the company was able to get for its services were stable, with an upward bias, he added.

“We are seeing good growth across all our lines of business,” Balakrishnan said.

In a bid to increase the number of services it can offer customers, Infosys and many other Indian outsourcing companies have ventured from their core business in software development into IT consultancy, business process outsourcing, systems integration, infrastructure management, and engineering services not directly related to information technology.

Bangalore-based Infosys has forecast that for its fiscal year, which runs through to March 31, 2006, revenue is expected to grow 34 percent to $2.14 billion, up from revenue of $1.6 billion during the last fiscal year.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), India’s largest outsourcer, is also expected to this week announce its results for the quarter ended September 30.

By John Ribeiro, IDG News Service