Infosys set to step up hiringOctober 16th, 2010

Infosys set to step up hiringOctober 16th, 2010

DC Correspondent


Bengaluru, Oct. 15: Bouyed by improving margins and favourable currency movements, IT bellweather Infosys post better than expected second quarter results on Friday. The company has also indicated that the outlook for the future seems to be improving. The technology major recorded total revenues of `6,947 crore — up 12.1 per cent over the previous quarter. Net profit for the September quarter stood at `1,737 crore, up about 16.7 per cent from the June quarter. These numbers are better than what the street was expecting.

The company also made a modest upgrade to its guidance for the coming quarter. For the full fiscal year, it is projecting revenues of $5.95-6 billion, up 24-25 per cent over the previous year.

The company has also said that it will be hiring a total of 40,000 people in FY11, against the 36,000 that it had indicated earlier. Attrition rate also increased during the quarter, indicating the improving circumstances in the tech sector. During the quarter, the company added (net of attrition), 7,646 employees taking up the staff strength of 1.22 lakh.

However, in spite of all these factors, the stock took a beating on the street and was down over 3 per cent. Infosys, Wipro and TCS, were the biggest losers amongst the 30 Sensex stocks for the session as investors pulled out money for the Coal India IPO. Fund managers who spoke to this newspaper say that there is nothing to worry about in the results, but the stocks are clearly not cheap at present valuations. Most brokerage houses have maintained ‘buy’ or ‘overweight’ ratings on the company, with price targets ranging from `3,250-` 3,700.

Amongst the various segments that the company operates in, telecom and retail businesses showed the highest growth. Infosys is also trying to improve the geographical spread of its revenues.

North America continues to account for about two thirds of the total revenues but its share has come down compared to Q1.

Business from Europe and India has gone up faster than average. Amongst various industries, financial services continue to provide a little over one third of the revenues.