Infosys Ltd, India’s second largest software services exporter, on Friday reported a 3.3 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net profit but forecast lower than expected revenue growth on challenging global economy. The IT major saw a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,394 crore for the January-March quarter of 2012-13 fiscal and posted 18.09 per cent rise in revenues at Rs 10,454 crore.
It pegged a revenue guidance of 6-10 per cent, which is lower than that of IT body Nasscom, which expects industry to grow by 12-14 per cent in the current fiscal. The company departed from its earlier practice of giving out annual Earnings Per Share (EPS) guidance.
On the muted sales guidance for FY14, Infosys CEO and managing director S D Shibulal told reporters here 'That is a reflection of the volatility, which we have seen over the last two quarters. The environment remains volatile as well as mixed. There are challenges in the US and Europe.'
The over $100-billion Indian IT-BPO sector gets about 80 per cent of its revenues from the US and and Europe.
'Our clients are struggling taking decisions beyond the environment. Our ramp-up on some of the deals which we have won is slower than what we had expected in Q4 2012-13,' he added. He further added that the company has pegged a growth of 0.5 per cent growth at the lower end and 2 per cent growth quarter-on-quarter on the upper end.
'As usual our guidance is a statement of fact. We have looked at our pipeline, our visibility in the next year and taken a decision of a wide range in the guidance between 6 to 10 per cent,' he said. Shibulal said pricing decline and cross-currency impact hit fourth quarter results.
'Q4 turned out to be a softer quarter than what we expected. Our volume went up by 1.8 per cent in Q4 at the same time we had an impact of 0.7 per cent due to pricing decline as well as an impact of 0.4 per cent because of the cross currency movement. Both impacted Q4,' he added. Infosys chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal said the global environment is volatile, which is affecting margins.
'I think the world is very volatile right now, the environment is very volatile and also considering that we have had growth challenges in the previous couple of quarters, I think we have set out for ourselves in terms of giving guidance which we believe is cheerful,' he added.
He further said 'If you look at the margins, we have done decently well this quarter. Our guidance for operating margins was 26 per cent for the full year and we are ending it at 25.8 per cent inspite of this being a soft quarter for us.'
It pegged a revenue guidance of 6-10 per cent, which is lower than that of IT body Nasscom, which expects industry to grow by 12-14 per cent in the current fiscal. The company departed from its earlier practice of giving out annual Earnings Per Share (EPS) guidance.
On the muted sales guidance for FY14, Infosys CEO and managing director S D Shibulal told reporters here 'That is a reflection of the volatility, which we have seen over the last two quarters. The environment remains volatile as well as mixed. There are challenges in the US and Europe.'
The over $100-billion Indian IT-BPO sector gets about 80 per cent of its revenues from the US and and Europe.
'Our clients are struggling taking decisions beyond the environment. Our ramp-up on some of the deals which we have won is slower than what we had expected in Q4 2012-13,' he added. He further added that the company has pegged a growth of 0.5 per cent growth at the lower end and 2 per cent growth quarter-on-quarter on the upper end.
'As usual our guidance is a statement of fact. We have looked at our pipeline, our visibility in the next year and taken a decision of a wide range in the guidance between 6 to 10 per cent,' he said. Shibulal said pricing decline and cross-currency impact hit fourth quarter results.
'Q4 turned out to be a softer quarter than what we expected. Our volume went up by 1.8 per cent in Q4 at the same time we had an impact of 0.7 per cent due to pricing decline as well as an impact of 0.4 per cent because of the cross currency movement. Both impacted Q4,' he added. Infosys chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal said the global environment is volatile, which is affecting margins.
'I think the world is very volatile right now, the environment is very volatile and also considering that we have had growth challenges in the previous couple of quarters, I think we have set out for ourselves in terms of giving guidance which we believe is cheerful,' he added.
He further said 'If you look at the margins, we have done decently well this quarter. Our guidance for operating margins was 26 per cent for the full year and we are ending it at 25.8 per cent inspite of this being a soft quarter for us.'