Infosys profit jumps 29pc but warns of slowdown

Chief Executive Officer of Infosys Technologies Kris GopalakrishnanPhoto: AFP

India's Infosys Technologies Ltd said yesterday fourth quarter profit jumped 29 percent but warned revenue growth will slow sharply this year as customers hit by the global recession demand lower prices for information technology services.
Infosys earned 16.1 billion rupees, ($322 million) in net profit for the three months ended March 31, up from 12.5 billion rupees a year earlier, it said in a statement.
But the company scaled back expectations for 2009 due to the global economic slowdown. Infosys said it expected revenue to grow between 1.7 percent and 5.7 percent in the current fiscal year compared with 30 percent in the just ended year. Revenue in US dollar terms was forecast to fall between 3.1 percent and 6.7 percent.
"Many of our clients are impacted by the financial crisis and are looking to us to help them reduce their expenses and optimise their businesses," said Infosys CEO and Managing Director S Gopalakrishnan.
The collapse of Wall Street firms and the US recession has analysts worried about the effect on the Indian outsourcing industry, for which the US is its biggest market.
The IT company said it added 37 new clients during the quarter, and hired 4,935 new employees. Infosys and its subsidiaries had 104,850 employees as of March 31.
Infosys' share price on the Bombay Stock Exchange fell 5 percent to 1,336 rupees.