INDIA’S biggest software exporter TCS said on Friday (October 19) its quarterly net profit jumped 44 per cent, beating estimates, as outsourcing orders rose despite economic troubles in the firm’s major markets.
Consolidated net profit for the three months ended September rose to Rs35.12bn ($662m/£413.58m) from Rs24.39bn ($453m/£283.01m) a year earlier.
Revenue grew more than 34 per cent to Rs156.2bn ($290m/£181m), it said, based on international accounting standards.
“It was another spectacular quarter with well-rounded growth. Pricing was stable and we saw a pick-up in discretionary spending,” TCS chief executive N Chandrasekaran said. “Projects are on track and deals are getting closed.”
TCS counts blue chip firms like General Electric, Citibank, British Airways and Sony among its main clients. The firm said it added 41 clients in the quarter and bagged 11 large deals.
Chandrasekaran said he expects TCS to beat the industry export revenue growth forecast of 11-14 per cent this fiscal year set by the lobby group National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom).
“We’ve said we’ll be ahead of Nasscom. We are on course,” the TCS chief said.
TCS’s performance contrasts sharply with rival Infosys, which last week showed a lower-than-projected revenue even as its profit rose 24 per cent year-on-year.
TCS and Infosys lead India’s flagship IT outsourcing industry which carries out a wide range of jobs for Western firms such as answering calls from bank customers, processing insurance claims and software development.
India, with its large English-speaking workforce, accounts for at least 50 per cent of the global outsourcing market.
