Indian Services Giant Hits $1 Billion in Annual Sales
By SARITHA RAI
 ANGALORE, India, April 13 - Infosys Technologies,
the bellwether of the Indian software services industry, has posted
more than $1 billion in annual sales for the first time and it
celebrated the news on Tuesday with a giant party, a special dividend
of $2.28 a share and a distribution of three shares for every one held.
Infosys, the largest publicly traded company in the industry and
the second largest over all after Tata Consultancy Services, recorded
$1.06 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ended March 31, an
increase of more than 30 percent from the previous year. The company
forecast a 25 percent increase for fiscal 2005. | Advertisement
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Infosys derives about two-thirds of its revenue from the United States, serving corporate clients like Reebok, Visa, Boeing, Cisco Systems, Nordstrom and New York Life. Profits
rose 30 percent, to $285 million, and the company said that profits
were likely to rise by another 20 percent in the coming year. "Today,
we have the required size, brand, compelling value proposition and
ambition to build the next-generation software, services and consulting
company," the chief executive, Nandan M. Nilekani, said in a statement. The
results, broadly in line with market expectations, are an indication
that the $12 billion Indian software services industry continues to
flourish, despite a growing political controversy in the United States
over outsourcing, or the contracting out of work like data entry,
programming and customer technical support. The Indian industry makes a
specialty of bidding for outsourcing work. Infosys said it added 38 clients and 2,425 workers in the quarter ended March 31. Infosys now employs 25,600 workers worldwide. I.B.M. said last week that it would acquire Daksh eServices, the third-largest call services company in India. On Monday, Citigroup said it would buy the 56 percent of e-Serve International, a back-office services provider, that it did not already own. The announcement of the special dividend and bonus stock sent the share price up 7 percent, to 5,490 rupees ($127). Infosys
was founded by seven entrepreneurs in 1981 with an initial investment
of about $250. Most of its explosive growth has come in the last five
years, a period when its sales grew sevenfold. The chairman, N.
R. Narayana Murthy, said in a statement that the $1 billion revenue
milestone was the "beginning of a new journey." A crosstown rival, Wipro,
is also expected to exceed $1 billion in annual revenue when its fiscal
2004 results are announced later this month. Satyam Computer Systems of
Hyderabad is also closing in on the $1 billion mark. To
celebrate, Infosys held a Billion Dollar Day party for 10,000 employees
and their families at its headquarters office campus in the suburbs of
Bangalore. There was no Champagne toast: Infosys bans alcohol on its
premises.
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