Infy reports 7% rise in Q3 net, revises revenue guidance

The country's second-largest software firm Infosys on Friday reported a 7 per cent growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 3,708 crore for the October-December quarter of the current fiscal.

The IT major revised its current fiscal constant currency revenue guidance to 8.4-8.8 per cent against 8-9 per cent estimated earlier.

The Bengaluru-headquartered firm's net profit stood at Rs 3,465 crore in the corresponding three months a year ago.

Its consolidated revenues in the third quarter rose 8.6 per cent to Rs 17,273 crore from Rs 15,902 crore in the year-ago period, the company said.

Reacting to the results, Infosys shares fell 0.61 per cent in early morning trade to Rs 993.95 apiece on BSE.

"Taking into account seasonal and other additional headwinds for the quarter, our Q3 revenue performance was broadly in line with our expectations," Infosys CEO and MD Vishal Sikka said.

Infosys COO U B Pravin Rao said the company's utilisation has remained healthy in a seasonally soft quarter.

"Our continued efforts to improve employee engagement and experience resulted in a reduction in attrition. During the quarter, we added 77 clients and also added two clients in the USD 75mn-plus revenue category," he added.

Infosys has appointed Ravikumar S as deputy chief operating officer, who will report to Rao with immediate effect.

In addition to his current responsibility of heading the global delivery organisation, Ravikumar will oversee certain strategic business enabling functions and will be based in India, it said.

In dollar terms, Infosys posted a 4.4 per cent jump in net profit to USD 547 million, while revenue was up 6 per cent to USD 2.5 billion in the third quarter.

During the quarter, the company paid interim dividend including tax of Rs 3,029 crore.

 Infosys's total headcount at the end of December quarter stood at over 1.99 lakh, down marginally from the September quarter.

 Its liquid assets including cash and cash equivalents, available-for-sale financial assets and government bonds were at Rs 35,697 crore as on December 31, 2016, as compared to Rs 35,640 crore as on September 30, 2016. 

Image: Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka.