BENGALURU, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Infosys raised its revenue
forecast and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) predicted robust
demand on Wednesday as the Indian IT giants said they expect
tech spending to continue, particularly for digital services
such as the cloud.
Often seen as a bellwether for India's more than $190
billion software services industry, Infosys said large
deal wins worth $2.53 billion in the three months to the end of
December had boosted its confidence.
Mumbai-based TCS and Bengaluru-headquartered Infosys came to
prominence by giving Western clients low-cost solutions to
problems such as the Y2K bug and have become global giants in
international business as outsourcing grew.
Infosys expects 19.5%-20% revenue growth for the financial
year to end-March 2022, compared with a previous 16.5%-17.5%
prediction, while retaining its operating margin guidance.
"We had a strong set of large deals and the pricing
environment remains stable ... the amount clients want to spend
on technology is going up," Chief Executive Salil Parekh told a
virtual news briefing.
India's software services sector has won more business
during the COVID-19 pandemic as companies globally look to boost
their digital presence and demand IT services ranging from
cloud-computing, digital payment infrastructure to
cybersecurity.
Infosys, India's No.2 IT company, reported a near 12% rise
in its consolidated net profit to 58.09 billion rupees ($786
million) in the third quarter, beating analysts' average
estimate of 57.05 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv Eikon.
Announcing its earnings for the December quarter, the larger
TCS said its consolidated net profit rose 12.3% to
97.69 billion rupees, slightly below an average analyst forecast
of 98.44 billion rupees, Refinitiv data showed.
"It's a very broad-based growth that we are experiencing and
very broad-based demand environment and we are participating
strongly across the full spectrum of demand," TCS CEO Rajesh
Gopinathan told reporters. "That gives us quite a lot of
confidence in terms of outlook for the future..."
The quarter saw clients invest in technology for long-term
growth, TCS said, adding that its growth was across all services
including cloud, cyber security, consulting and services
integration, "internet of things" and digital engineering.
Consolidated revenue from operations at TCS jumped 16.4% to
488.85 billion rupees, while Infosys posted revenue of 318.67
billion rupees.
"The large deal wins and the (Infosys) CEO's statement on
large digital transformation pipeline gives (a) good amount of
confidence that the Indian (IT) companies are on a strong
footing," Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president at SMC
Securities, said.
Another Indian IT major Wipro, which reported
earnings earlier in the day, said its December quarter revenue
climbed 30%, while net profit remained nearly flat.
($1 = 73.9000 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru and Sankalp
Phartiyal in New Delhi; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)