Infosys misses Street estimate on Q3 profit, but raises revenue guidance

NEW DELHI: Infosys on Friday announced a share buyback of Rs 8,260 crore and a special dividend of Rs 4 per equity share along with its financial results for October-December period. The country’s second-largest IT company raised its revenu e growth guidance for financial year 2018-19. However, consolidated profit came in below market expectations, while revenue beat Street estimates.

Here are other top takeaways from Infosys' third-quarter earnings:

Net profit: Infosys posted 29.62 per cent year-on-year (YoY) drop in net profit at Rs 3,610 crore for the quarter ended December 31 against Rs 5,129 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The profit figure was down 12.17 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis. An analysts poll by ETNow had projected a profit of Rs 4,136 crore for the quarter under review.

Revenue from operations: The figure jumped 20.26 per cent to Rs 21,400 crore in Q3FY19 over Rs 17,794 crore in Q3FY18. Revenue increased 3.84 per cent on a QoQ basis. Infosys earned consolidated revenue of $54,300 per employee during the quarter gone by as against $54,700 per employee in the previous quarter.

Attrition: Consolidated attrition declined to 19.90 per cent in Q3FY19 over 22.20 per cent in the previous quarter. “Volume growth was strong and revenue productivity was stable despite Q3 being a seasonally weak quarter. We had good growth across geographies and large business segments”, said Pravin Rao, COO.

“Attrition declined during the quarter and we are continuing on the path of increased interventions and employee engagements to reduce it further,” said Rao in a release.

Infosys reported gross addition of 18,773 to its workforce in the Oct-December period.

Guidance: The company revised its FY19 revenue guidance in constant currency upward to 8.5 per cent-9.0 per cent. However, operating margin guidance retained at 22 per cent-24 per cent.

Bonanza for shareholders: A special dividend of Rs 4 per share would result in a payout of around Rs 2,107 crore (including dividend distribution tax). The company has fixed January 25 as record date for the purpose of special dividend and January 28, 2019 as payment date.

Assets held for sale: Infosys had earlier classified its subsidiaries Kallidus and Skava (together referred to as ‘Skava’ and Panaya as “Held for Sale”. During the quarter ended December 31, 2018, based on an evaluation of proposals received and progress of negotiations with potential buyers, Infosys concluded that it is no longer highly probable that sale would be consummated by March 31, 2019.

Accordingly, Panaya and Skava have been de-classified from “held for sale” in accordance with the requirements of IFRS 5. On de-classification, the company recognised additional depreciation and amortization expenses of Rs 88 crore and a reduction of Rs 451 crore in the carrying value for Skava. The impact of the same on the basic earnings per share was a decrease of Rs 1.24 for the quarter ended December 31, 2018.

Updates on board: The board has approved reappointment of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw as the Lead Independent Director from April 1, 2019 to March 22, 2023.

Clients data: Infosys added 101 clients (gross) during the quarter. With that, the number of active clients for Infosys stood at 1,251 as of December 31, 2018.


Share buyback and dividend: Jayesh Sanghrajka, Interim CFO said: We saw significant currency volatility during the quarter and managed it effectively by our hedging strategy. Cash generation was strong during the quarter. Executing on the capital allocation strategy announced in April 2018, we have announced a share buyback program and a special dividend.