Infosys Q4 net up 16% at Rs 3,597 crore; sees strong FY17 growth

Bengaluru: Infosys Ltd, India's second- largest IT services firm, on Friday reported better-than-expected 16 percent rise in the fourth-quarter net profit and forecast strong revenue growth for the current fiscal on new client additions.

Consolidated net profit at Rs 3,597 crore in the January- March period of last fiscal was 16.2 percent higher than Rs 3,097 crore net earning in the same period of 2014-15, the company said in a statement.

Turnover rose 23.4 percent to Rs 16,550 crore in the fourth quarter of 2015-16.

On a sequential basis, Infosys' net profit rose 3.8 percent from Rs 3,465 crore in the October-December quarter while revenue was up 4.1 percent from Rs 15,902 crore during the same period.

Infosys said sales will rise between 11.8 percent and 13.8 percent in US dollar terms in the 2016-17 fiscal year that began on April 1. Revenue will grow between 11.5 percent and 13.5 percent in constant currency terms, indicating a faster growth rate than the industry average as the company shifts to high-margin digital services business.

Industry body Nasscom had in February forecast a 10-12 percent growth for IT and software services exports in 2016-17.

Under Vishal Sikka, the company's focus has been artificial intelligence, adding new contracts and keeping hold of staff to boost sales. This together with acquisitions has helped turn around Infosys that was losing share to rivals like Tata Consultancy Services and Cognizant.

Infosys, whose board in February extended Sikka's term as Chief Executive by another two years to 2021, added 89 clients in the last quarter, including 5 large clients who pay more than USD 50 million annually.

Sikka is eyeing revenue of USD 20 billion by 2020, more than double of USD 9.5 billion sale in 2015-16.

"Over the course of this year, we saw this strategy of bringing automation and innovation to our clients, on a foundation of learning and education, start to show results in the organic growth of our client relationships, in our win rates in large deals, and in the types of projects we are seeing in strategic areas where we never participated before," he said.