Infosys confident of emerging stronger

[sajiv]

Infosys confident of emerging stronger

BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies on Saturday said that growth of the company would be impacted this year as many clients were cutting down on their IT spends but exuded confidence that it would emerge stronger once the global crisis is over.

"Many of our clients are reducing their IT budgets. This will impact our growth during the current year. A recent survey of our top 135 clients indicated that a majority of them will downsize their IT budgets.

"Consequently, our revenue guidance in U.S. dollars indicated a decline of 3.1 per cent to 6.7 per cent in fiscal 2010," Infosys Chief Mentor and Chairman N. R. Naryana Murthy told shareholders during the 28th annual general meeting of the company here.

"We have taken several steps to mitigate the impact of the current crisis. We are confident that we will be stronger when the economic uncertainties end," he said.

The company, he said, started the year with a revenue guidance of a growth of 19-21 per cent in dollar terms.

During the course of the year, the company ran into a "perfect storm" of a global financial crisis and growth and revenues were severely impacted.

"Despite these adversities we ended the year with our revenues growing by 11.7 per cent in dollar terms, as per the International Financial Reporting Standard."

"During the year, we also saw significant depreciation of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar by around 26.7 per cent which resulted in a revenue growth of over 30 per cent as per the Indian GAAP", he told the shareholders.

"Our business model has proved its versatility in this tough environment", he said.

Infosys added 156 clients with the repeat business contributing 97.6 per cent of the revenues. It had 579 active clients with four of them billing over $100 million of business annually, Mr. Murthy said.

"As per our dividend policy, the directors recommend a final dividend of Rs. 13.50 per share, making it a total dividend of Rs. 23.50 per share for the year," he said.
Kamath on board

He also announced the induction of banker K. V. Kamath on the company's board.

The company, he said, had increased its focus on new engagement models to ensure higher return on investment and have enhanced the current suite of offerings.

The firm had filed for 200 patent applications in the U.S. and India, said the Chief Mentor. — PTI