i-flex was cause for major cheer on Thursday after it produced figures that squarely beat analysts' expectations.

The scrip of the software major, immediately leaped 4.07% to Rs 836.50 after results were declared. By 11:05 IST, i-flex Solutions recorded volumes of 77,499 shares on BSE .

Today morning, i-flex said that third quarter ended 31 December 2002 net profit, on a consolidated basis, surged 117% to Rs 59 crore compared to Rs 27.18 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Revenues increased 50% to Rs 174 crore (Rs 1.74 billion) from Rs 115.66 crore (Rs 1.15 billion) in DQ 2001.

Capitalmarket.com had surveyed four software analysts to come out with expectations of a net profit growth in the range of 39.5-64% to Rs 38-44.6 crore for the Mumbai-based software company on a 28.5-43% increase in net sales to Rs 148.6-165.6 crore (Rs 1.48-1.65 billion).

i-flex has been in limelight following the huge success of its key banking product Flexcube, which has been instrumental in pushing up its fortunes.

Flexcube has been ranked among the two top selling wholesale banking back-office systems in 1999 and 2000, and among the three top selling retail banking systems in the world in 2000 by IBS. In 2001, it was ranked among the two top selling solutions in both the retail banking and the wholesale banking sales league table.

i-flex Solutions, a leading provider of technology solutions to the financial services sector, derives over 60% of its revenues from high margin products. It is in the business of providing solutions to the financial services industry and its range of solutions includes packaged applications for the financial services industry, custom application software development, deployment, maintenance and support services for financial institutions, and business and IT consulting services in the financial services domain.

As on 30 September 2002, the promoters' holding in i-flex was 43.2%, while the public, local institutions and foreign institutions held 41%, 3.7% and 10.7%, respectively.