Infosys Q4 net rises 25% to Rs 2,992 crore

Country's second largest software services firm Infosys reported 25 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 2,992 crore (Rs 29.92 billion) for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, as compared to Rs 2,394 crore (Rs 23.94 billion) in the same period last fiscal.

The company's revenue for the reported quarter was up 23.2 per cent to Rs 12,875 crore (Rs 128.75 billion) from Rs 10,454 crore (Rs 104.54 billion) in the year-ago period.

The Bangalore-based firm, which is on a revival path following the return of its co-founder N R Narayana Murthy at the helm of affairs, has forecast a conservative outlook of 7 to 9 per cent revenue growth in dollar terms for the financial year 2014-15.

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In dollar terms, the company's profit grew 9.7 per cent to $487 million in the reported quarter while revenue was up by 7.9 per cent to $2.09 billion in the quarter under review.

For FY'14, net profit grew 1.5 per cent to $1.75 billion, while revenue was up 11.5 per cent to $8.2 billion over the previous fiscal.

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Infosys has guided a revenue growth of 7-9 per cent (in dollar terms) next year and remains firmly focused on building the growth momentum by making all the necessary investments in its business, he added.

Sequentially, the company's net profit was up 4.1 per cent from Rs 2,875 crore (Rs 28.75 billion) in the October-December 2013 quarter, while revenue was lower by 1.2 per cent from Rs 13,026 crore (Rs 130.26 billion).

For FY'14, the net profit was up 13 per cent at Rs 10,648 crore (Rs 106.48 billion) and revenue grew 24.2 per cent to Rs 50,133 crore (Rs 501.33 billion).

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North America accounted for 59.8 per cent of the revenues, Europe (25.2 per cent), India (2.6 per cent) and Rest of the World (12.4 per cent).

Infosys added 10,997 employees (gross) in the last quarter of FY'14 and 39,985 employees during the entire fiscal to take the total headcount to 1,60,405.

Infosys and its subsidiaries added 50 clients during the quarter and 238 during the year, the company said.

“Infosys’ results and guidance were largely in line with estimates. The 7-9 per cent growth in FY15 indicates about 2.5 per cent compounded quarterly growth rate in FY15, which is encouraging. While a few verticals and geographies have seen a decline QoQ, that was in line with earlier management commentary,” said Dipen Shah, Head- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.

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Its liquid assets including cash and cash equivalents, available-for-sale financial assets, certificates of deposits and government bonds stood at Rs 30,251 crore (Rs 302.51 billion) in Q4 FY'14.

This is against Rs 27,440 crore (Rs 274.40 billion) in the previous quarter (Q3) and Rs 23,958 crore (Rs 239.58 billion) in Q4 FY'13.

The Board of Directors has recommended a final dividend of Rs 43 per share for fiscal 2014.

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It has also decided to increase the dividend pay-out ratio to up to 40 per cent of post-tax profits effective fiscal 2014 from the earlier practice of up to 30 per cent of post-tax profits.

"Our cash and cash equivalents crossed Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) during the quarter. We have increased the dividend payout ratio to up to 40 per cent of post-tax profits effective FY'14 to enhance returns for our shareholders," Infosys CFO Rajiv Bansal said.

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Infosys, which has been losing market share to industry peers in recent years, brought back Murthy from retirement in June last year to revive the company's sagging fortunes.

The company, however, continues to battle the exodus of senior executives and staff since Murthy's return, triggering concerns about its ability to compete for deals in the US and European markets, which account for close to 80 per cent of the exports of the $108 billion Indian IT-BPO market.