Close on the heels of Infosys and Wipro entering the billion dollar revenue club, analysts have predicted strong results for the country's third largest listed software company Satyam Computers in 2003-04 in terms of both earnings and revenue on the back of high order momentum and client interest in the company.

"Satyam should be able to meet its guidance in both revenue and earnings as the order momentum and client interest in the company are very high. In fact, this may push the company to marginally exceed the guidance for FY04, Apurva Shah, senior research analyst, Prabhudas Liladhar Pvt Ltd, told PTI in New Delhi.

Discounting any impact of rupee appreciation and the outsourcing backlash on the company's performance, he said the last three quarters had shown strong results and the fourth quarter was not going to be different.

Echoing similar views, Ganesh Douvvuri, IT analyst, Motilal Oswal Securities, said operationally the company had no problems in the year and it should be able to meet its guidance.

"Satyam should be able to meet its guidance despite the rupee appreciation…there is strong volume growth for the company as has been in the case of Infosys and Wipro. But the volume growth will be less than that of Infosys and Wipro," Douvvuri said.

NYSE-listed Satyam Computers will announce its fourth quarter results on Thursday. It had earlier given a revenue growth guidance of 31 per cent for 2003-04 while earnings per share for the year was expected to be between Rs 17.77-17.84.

Shah said the company was expected to go beyond the strong performance in the current fiscal by posting better topline on the back of continued business momentum towards offshoring, strong client interest and its leading position in package implementation like Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP and ERP.

The package implementation is the fastest growing segment in the IT practices, he said.

Douvvuri, however, said the rupee appreciation had affected everybody.

Douvvuri said he expected acceleration in Satyam's line and earnings growth in the current fiscal as all four quarters of the year should show robust growth on large deals and increased client faith in the company. The June quarter last fiscal was bad for the company due to SARS and Iraq war.

"Growth in package implementation, in which Satyam is the leader, should continue in FY05," he said.

The company had outperformed its own forecast and market expectations by posting a net profit of Rs 145.87 crore (Rs 1.46 billion) during the quarter ending December 31, 2003.

It had earned a revenue of Rs 662.70 crore (Rs 6.63 billion) during the quarter, well above its earlier guidance of Rs 620 crore (Rs 6.20 billion) to Rs 630 crore (Rs 6.30 billion), amounting to 26.89 per cent increase over the corresponding quarter in 2002-03.

The earnings per share for the Q3 stood at Rs 4.63 -- which is again well above the guidance range of Rs 4.05 to Rs 4.15.