India's Infosys sees 2008/09 rev up 27.5-29.5 pct
BANGALORE, July 11 (Reuters) - Infosys Technologies Ltd (INFY.BO), India's No. 2 software services company, said on Friday it saw revenue in 2008/09 rising 27.5-29.5 percent, with the global economic environment remaining unstable.
Infosys, which posted a better-than-expected 21 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by a weaker rupee, said while pricing had remained stable in the June quarter, margins were impacted by wage increases and visa costs.
"Although the global economic environment continues to remain unstable and could impact IT spending in the short term, we see several opportunities for growth as customers focus on improving efficiency," CEO and Managing Director S. Gopalakrishnan said.
Infosys (INFY.O), which develops applications, designs supply chains and offers back-office services, said on Friday net profit rose to 13.02 billion rupees ($303 million) in the fiscal first quarter ended June from 10.79 billion reported a year earlier.
A Reuters poll of 15 brokerages had estimated a net profit of 12.69 billion rupees for Infosys, which counts ABN AMRO, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Philips Electronics (PHG.AS), and U.S. insurer Conseco (CNO.N) among its 500 or so clients.
A large pool of English-speaking graduates and comparatively cheaper wages had helped Indian firms ride an outsourcing boom for years, but the growth slowed last year when Wall Street banks made huge write-downs related to the subprime crisis and as the U.S. economy lurched towards recession. ($1=43 rupees) (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)
