Mumbai: Information technology major Infosys on Wednesday reported a 23% rise in its net profit at Rs 5,195 crore. It registered an increase in profit by 18% in revenue to Rs 27,896 crore.
Big deal flows from the country’s second-largest software services firm remained strong, with a TCV of $2.6 billion in the first quarter.
“Driven by the dedication of our employees and the trust of our customers, we grew 16.9% year-over-year and 4.8% quarter-on-quarter in constant currency at the fastest pace in the first quarter in a decade. I take pride in our employees. We as ‘One Infosys’ demonstrate resilience and commitment to our customers. This gives us the confidence to raise our revenue growth guidance to 14%-16%”, said Salil Parekh, CEO & MD, Infosys .
“As Infosys completes forty remarkable years, its continued success and global impact is a testament to the vision of the founders and all the leaders who shape the company,” he added.
According to its Chief Operating Officer Pravin Rao, Infosys plans to hire 35,000 college graduates globally in FY22. At the end of June quarter, Infosys had a total employee base of 2.67 lakh, as against 2.59 lakh in the March quarter.
Mr. Rao said, “With increasing demand for digital talent, growing jobs in the industry poses a challenge in the near future. We are looking to meet this demand by expanding our recruitment program of college graduates to 35,000 globally for FY22. planning to complete.”
The company reported an operating margin at 23.7% for the quarter, with free cash flow growing 15.2% year-on-year to Rs 6363 crore.
“We are confident of delivering margin guidance based on our comprehensive cost optimization program, despite cost escalation arising largely from the compensation review, talent acquisition and retention,” said Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy. “Our free cash conversion was strong at 122.3% of net profit and ROE increased to 29.3%”, he said.
The company has initiated a share buyback program through the open market route with effect from June 25, 2021, and has, so far, repurchased 9.8 million shares worth approximately Rs 1,542 crore or 16.8% of the total authorization of approximately Rs 9,200 crore at an average price of Rs. is. Rs 1,569 per share (as against the maximum buyback price of Rs 1,750 per share).
Commenting on the results, Mr. Piyush Pandey, Lead Analyst – Institutional Equities, YES Securities, said, “Revenue growth is slightly better than expected in USD terms with CC growth at 4.7% QoQ at 4.7% QoQ. Growth is few. Weakness in communications segment. EBIT margin was down 80 bps QoQ by 23.7% on account of higher employee and sub-contract cost. Sequential PAT growth was muted due to higher tax expense and higher employee cost.”
Ahead of the results, Infosys shares closed 2% higher at Rs 1576.9 in a firm Mumbai market on Wednesday, valuing the company at Rs 671960 crore.
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