Mumbai, April 18, 2024 (AFP)
Indian tech giant Infosys reported weaker-than-expected revenue growth for the March quarter Thursday, as a lingering client spending slowdown in the United States tempered recovery hopes for the software services industry.
The Bengaluru-headquartered firm, which earns over 80 percent of its revenue from Western markets, has stumbled in the last year after a Covid-induced growth boom.
High interest rates and inflation have hurt tech spending by global companies, leading to fewer deal wins and the cancellation of existing contracts for the Indian software outsourcing sector.
Infosys reported revenue of 379.23 billion rupees ($4.54 billion) for the quarter, a 1.3 percent increase over the same period in the previous financial year.
The company's net profit jumped 30 percent to hit $954 million, but this was helped by a bump in other income.
Revenue for the 12 months prior to March 31 was $18.38 billion, up 1.4 percent on-year in constant currency terms.
Net profit for the same period was $3.4 billion, up 8.9 percent before constant currency adjustments.
Chief executive Salil Parekh said the macro environment had a "mixed outlook".
"On the US I think, as you've seen, we had slower outlook," he said.
Infosys's North American business, the largest market for the company, reported a revenue decline of 2.1 percent.
"There's been good traction with the cost and the efficiency and the consolidation nature of large deals. Whereas we see that digital programs or some discretionary work is still not as visible within the work we are seeing," Parekh said.
Infosys has projected tepid sales growth for the 12 months ahead, forecasting revenue to grow between 1-3 percent on a constant-currency basis.
Shares in Infosys ended up 1.06 percent at the close of trading in Mumbai on Thursday.

Sumber : AFP