Rediff Logo
Money
Line
Channels: Astrology | Broadband | Contests | E-cards | Money | Movies | Romance | Search | Weather | Wedding | Women
Partner Channels: Auctions | Auto | Bill Pay | IT Education | Jobs | Lifestyle | Technology | Travel
Line
Home > Money > Business Headlines > Report
April 11, 2001
Feedback  
  Money Matters

 -  Business Special
 -  Business Headlines
 -  Corporate Headlines
 -  Columns
 -  IPO Center
 -  Message Boards
 -  Mutual Funds
 -  Personal Finance
 -  Stocks
 -  Tutorials
 -  Search rediff

    
      



 
 Search the Internet
         Tips
 Sites: Finance, Investment
E-Mail this report to a friend
Print this page

Infosys fails to impress in Q4

NetScribes/Abhijit Basu

It has always created history. This time, though, it's of a different kind -- Infosys Technologies has fallen short of market and analyst expectations.

On Wednesday morning, the IT giant reported uninspiring fourth-quarter results that sent the Infosys scrip crashing to a new 52-week low.

For the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2001, the company has reported a mere 94.5 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 1.8 billion and a 100 per cent growth in total revenue to Rs 5.72 billion.

This, after reporting dizzy rates of topline and bottomline growth for the first three quarters of FY2001.

"The results are disappointing and would hit the company harder over a period of time. Although all the details have not come in as of now, the outlook is bleak at the moment," said Manish Agrawal, senior software analyst, Pranav Securities.

As if these figures weren't bad enough, the company has projected a revenue growth of just 30 per cent for the next fiscal.

"That is much lower than expected. It is time the company stopped going on about it being a premium player and listened to the market instead. There is a slowdown in the market that Infosys seems to be ignoring," said a senior software analyst at Span Capital Services.

"Despite the slowdown, it added 921 employees last quarter, which is perhaps the highest in the industry. It is already facing a crunch, as a result of which margins have been hit. It cannot decrease salaries, cannot increase billing rates and cannot hike margins. So, the 30 per cent figure is what one can realistically expect, down from expectations of 100 per cent and above," he added.

The company's revenues from North America have fallen to 71.61 per cent of total revenues in Q4 2001 from 77.5 per cent in the previous corresponding quarter, while revenues from Europe have risen to 20.47 per cent from 15.7 per cent.

Also, the company has reduced its exposure to dot-coms and start-ups since they accounted for a mere 4 per cent of its revenues in the previous quarter.

Money

Business News

Tell us what you think of this report