Infosys profit rises 3% to Rs 2,394 crore

Infosys Ltd, India's No. 2 IT services exporter, marginally beat analyst estimates with a 3.4 per cent rise in quarterly profit as the company won orders from customers including German automaker BMW.

Consolidated net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31 was Rs 2,394 crore (Rs 23.94 billion), compared with Rs 2,316 crore (Rs 23.16 billion) in the same period a year earlier.

Revenues growth in the fourth quarter was 18.1 per cent compared to the same period last year. The company reported revenues of Rs 10,454 crore (Rs 104.54 billion) in Q4.

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The company expects revenues to grow 6 - 10 per cent in the current financial year ending March 2014.

In a statement to Bombay Stock Exchange, Infosys CEO and Managing Director S D Shibulal said: "Global economic uncertainties remain challenging for the IT industry,"

"The global currency market continues to be volatile reflecting the uncertain economic environment. Our hedging strategy helps us to minimise the volatility impact," said Rajiv Bansal, Chief Financial Officer. "We have a healthy balance sheet with our cash and cash equivalents at US$ 4.4 billion."

Infosys' liquid assets including cash and cash equivalents, current available-for-sale financial assets, investment in certificates of deposits and government bonds were Rs 23,958 crore (Rs 239.58 billion) versus Rs 22,501 crore (Rs 225.01 billion) as on December 31, 2012.

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Shares of Infosys plummeted 15 percent in early trading after the company disappointed markets with a lower-than-expected revenue outlook despite fourth-quarter earnings beating analyst expectations by a small margin.

After the result announcement, around 0925 hours the company stock dropped 18.47 per cent and was trading at Rs 2,379 apiece.

"The results are very bad; very, very bad. The guidance is especially bad," said Nimish Joshi, equity analyst, CLSA told Reuters.

K K Mital, CEO for Portfolio Management Services, Globe Capital told Reuters, "The forecast looks quite conservative, which is a concern. The fiscal 2013 was also not very good for Infosys. This looks like company specific problem. Even mid-cap companies are expected to perform better than this.