Infosys stays on course, projects $ 545-m revenues for the fiscal

Our Corporate Bureau

Kolkata, Nov 19: Infosys Technologies Ltd Monday said it is on course after the terrorist attacks on America and will be reporting revenues between $535 and 545 million for the year to March 31, 2002. Managing director Nandan Nilekani said the company is still on course with financial projections announced in April.

Mr Nilekani, who is the latest winner of the prestigious Ernst & Young entrepreneur award, said the company has started investing aggressively in marketing, brand-building and providing value proposition to the customer despite the economic slowdown.

Infosys, which had a 100 per cent plus growth in profits to March 2001 over the previous fiscal, is expecting a 30 per cent growth in the current fiscal. The company had reported a Rs 666 crore profit to March 31, 2001, from Rs 310 crore in the previous fiscal.

Asked whether the company will be comfortable with a less-than-three-digit growth figure, Mr Nilekani noted: “Thirty per cent growth will be a great driver for jobs.”

According to him, the global IT consulting and services company is expecting a flat growth in revenues between $134 and $137 million in the third quarter to December 31, 2001, as forecast earlier. He said that at present there is no profit warning and added, “if something precipitates we will come back and announce it”.

Infosys generates 98 per cent of its revenues from overseas, of which 68 to 70 per cent comes from the US market alone. Two per cent of Infosys revenues come from marketing its banking software product in India.

Despite the slowdown, terrorist attacks and a reported four per cent contraction in the growth of gross domestic product, Mr Nilekani said the company is unlikely to have any adverse effect because of its broad customer base.