Bangalore, April 15
Infosys today announced y-o-y growth of 17.1 per cent and sequential (q-o-q) growth of 2.1 per cent in its net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2011. Net profit (profit after tax) registered by the company was Rs 1,818 crore during the quarter.

Revenues for the company were at Rs 7,250 crore, showing a sequential growth of 2 per cent and an y-o-y growth of 22 per cent.

Addressing a press conference at the company’s headquarters, S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD, said earnings per share (EPS) was Rs 31.82 during the quarter showing a q-o-q growth of 2.2 per cent and y-o-y growth of 17.1 per cent.

The company added new 34 clients during the quarter and could retain 3,041 employees out of the 8,930 employees it recruited during the quarter.

According to the company’s guidance, it expects its revenues to grow at 18 to 19 per cent on a YoY basis during the next quarter ending on June 30. For the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2012, it foresees its revenue to grow at about 15-17 per cent over the previous financial year.

The company once again generated maximum revenue from North America (63.7 per cent) followed by Europe (22.1 per cent) during the quarter. While the “Rest of the World” accounted for 11.5 per cent of the revenue, the income from India was only 2.7 per cent of the total revenue generated by the company during the quarter.

Gopalakrishnan pointed out that revenue generated from India was 2.2 per cent during the last quarter and 1.4 per cent of the total revenue during the corresponding quarter last year. “Our income from India is progressively increasing”, he said.

During the quarter the company’s growth in North America, traditionally its largest market, declined 0.5 per cent sequentially. There was positive growth in Europe (an increase of 2.4 per cent sequentially) and in the “Rest of the World” (3.3 per cent increase sequentially).

Insurance and banking and financial services continued to remain the most important clients for Infosys with 35.7 per cent of the company’s revenue coming from them.

Manufacturing industry was the second largest client (20.4 per cent), followed by retail industry (14.5 per cent), telecom (11.9 per cent) and energy & utilities (5.8 per cent), etc.

Application development and maintenance remained the chief revenue earner for the company (38.1 per cent of the total revenue) with application maintenance alone accounting for 22 per cent of the 38 per cent.

Bangalore, April 15
Infosys results sparked worries about the sector’s growth after it forecast annual sales lower than expected on slower client spending, knocking its shares down nearly 10 per cent. Today was the biggest daily fall for the stock since since May 19, 2009. Rival Wipro dropped as much as 5 per cent. The sector index fell 6.3 per cent in a broader market, down 1.5 per cent.

The company has estimated tepid revenue growth due to global economic uncertainty and said margins would decline for the year ending March 2012, highlighting currency risks for the export-focused sector.

“Based on what Infosys has reported and forecast, people will taper down their earnings estimates for the top players in the sector,” said Tejas Doshi, vice-president of research at Sushil Finance in Mumbai.

The company, seen as a benchmark for the Indian outsourcing sector, has missed analysts’ profit estimates for the third time in four quarters.

“You are seeing high fluctuations in the client spending due to global economic uncertainties. Margins will remain under pressure for the companies,” Doshi said.

Infosys Chief Operating Officer SD Shibulal said the company expected to raise wages 10-12 per cent in fiscal year 2012, while likely not being able to raise pricing. — Reuters

Mumbai, April 15
James Bond fans in India can now own the very car which the secret agent drove in many Ian Fleming flicks with Aston Martin announcing its entry here with prices going up to Rs 20 crore, arguably the costliest car to ever launched in the country. English sports brand Aston Martin today entered into the domestic market, offering as many as 10 models from its luxury cars. To begin with these completely built units will be available in the metropolis at between Rs 1.35 to Rs 20 crore.

“India represents a new opportunity for us and as part of our programme of growing the reach of the global Aston Martin dealership network, this expansion brings our brand to a different audience in a new market,” Aston Martin chief commercial officer Michael van der Sande said.

Aston Martin will offer its whole range of cars except the Cygnet in the country - from the basic V8 Vantage to the ultra-exclusive One-77 Hypercar. The Gaydon, England-based luxury carmaker, has tied up with Performance Cars (a division of Infinity Cars) to open its first showroom here. The second dealership will be opened in New Delhi shortly.

Sounding bullish, van der Sande said the company expects to sell as many as 30 units by the end of the year in the country. — PTI

Chandigarh, April 15.
Indian Bank will launch its follow on public issue (FPO) in the second quarter this year. The FPO, expected to be at Rs 1,500 crore will dilute at least 10 per cent equity of the bank. The government holding in the bank will be reduced to 70 per cent. T M Bhasin, CMD, said that they have already filed the draft Red-Herring prospectus for the FPO, which is likely to hit the market in the second quarter of this year.

In 2010-11, the bank grew 22 per cent, and this year the bank is eyeing 24 per cent growth in its total business. “As against a total business of Rs 1,82,000 crore in 2010-11, this year, our target for total business is Rs 2,25,000 crore. This growth in business will come mainly from agriculture, MSME and retail sectors,” said Bhasin. He added that the bank was looking at expanding its operations within the country by opening over 130 new branches, including five overseas branches.

“The bank has 1,836 branches within the country, and we hope to have a total of 2,000 branches by the fiscal end. Since international business contributes nearly Rs 10,000 crore to the total bank business, we are looking at increasing our presence in various South East Asian countries, especially where large population of South Indians is based. Last year, we opened branches in Singapore, Colombo and Jaffna. This year, we are looking at opening branches in Hong Kong and Jakarta, besides adding three new branches in Sri Lanka,” said Bhasin. He said that with these new overseas branches, the contribution of international business to the bank’s total business would rise to RS 15,000 crore.

The focus of the bank will be on retail banking and recovery of NPAs, in order to ensure growth and profitability of the bank. The gross NPA of the bank was 1.02 per cent in December 2010. 

New Delhi, April 15
Driven by increase in prices of food and manufactured goods, inflation soared to 8.98 per cent in March raising fears of yet another hike in key policy rates by the Reserve Bank next month

Headline inflation, measured by movement in wholesale prices, at near 9 per cent in March was much above the RBI’s projection of 8 per cent. Experts feel the central bank may take further steps to tame rate of price rise at its annual policy to be announced on May 3.

As per the official data, food articles group became expensive by 9.47 per cent, cereals by 3.96 per cent and, rice and wheat by 2.69 per cent and 0.75 per cent, respectively.

The manufactured goods group index rose by 6.21 per cent on an annual basis. Manufactured items have the highest weight of 64.9 per cent in the WPI. Despite the eight consecutive hikes in key policy rates by the RBI since March 2010, inflation has continued to remain significantly above the comfort level of 5-6 per cent.

"Inflation has been a concern. It has not come under control as much as I had hoped. There is a need to use fiscal and monetary policy to get rid of supply constraints wherever they exist," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek SIngh Ahluwalia said. Further, the inflation for January was revised upwards to 9.35 per cent.— PTI

Chandigarh, April 15
Bank of Baroda is eyeing 27 per cent in total business in the region this fiscal. The public sector bank is targeting total business from North India to grow from Rs 11,000 crore to Rs 14,000 crore by March 2012.

Deputy Regional Manager of the bank S K Goyal said: “We have 120 branches spread across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. We will add 22 branches in this year, with 10 new branches in Punjab, seven in Haryana, three in Himachal and two in Jammu and Kashmir,”.

He added this year, the were looking at increasing the advances to Rs 6,000 crore, and the deposits to Rs 8,000 crore. “Increase in business is expected from agriculture, SME and retail sectors. Since we propose to get more aggressive in retail lending, we are looking to increase specialised retail branches (retail loan factory) to four. We already have two of these at Chandigarh and Ludhiana, and may add two more at Jalandhar and Ambala,” he said. 

New Delhi, April 15
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the country's tax office to restrain from enforcing penalties on Vodafone until an order is passed after a case hearing in July, but allowed it to continue with its proceedings, the British firm said. 
Vodafone had filed a petition with the top court seeking protection against a notice from the tax authority starting penalty proceedings on the company related to a tax bill over its 2007 acquisition of a controlling stake in a mobile firm.

Vodafone is contesting a $2.5 billion withholding tax bill over its Hutchison acquisition and had appealed to the Supreme Court challenging a lower court order that said the Indian tax office had jurisdiction over tax bills in cross-border deals.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case on July 19.

The tax office had raised the $2.5 billion tax demand last October and had asked Vodafone to make payments within 30 days.

Last month, the tax office initiated penalty proceedings against Vodafone. Potential penalty could amount to 100 percent of the tax, Vodafone has said.

In a statement on Friday, Vodafone reiterated that it would take all steps to defend itself and its investors against the tax authority's actions.— Reuters