Sikka effect: Infosys Q2 net vaults 28.6% to Rs3,096 crore

India's second largest software exporter Infosys Ltd has posted a 28.6 per cent rise in net profit at Rs3,096 crore for the quarter ended 30 September, beating street expectations, on the back of higher-than-expected increase in margins.

The Bangalore-based company's board also approved an interim dividend of Rs30 per share and a bonus issue of one equity share for every equity share held.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs2,407 crore for the same quarter a year ago. On a sequential basis, Infosys posted a 7.3 per cent rise in net profit, the company said in a statement.

Infosys' Q2 revenues rose 4.5 per cent to Rs13,342 crore from the year-ago quarter, while on a sequential basis it rose 2.9 per cent.

"Digital transformation is reshaping the business of every one of our clients. We see this as a great opportunity to help them renew the core of their business as well as to expand into new frontiers and are seeing early positive results,'' said Infosys chief executive officer and managing director Vishal Sikka.

''Our strategy is to apply the same principles to our own business in order to capture this opportunity and accelerate our growth, within our culture of lifelong learning and purposeful work,'' Sikka added.

Infosys and its subsidiaries added 49 clients, while gross addition of employees stood at 14,255 during the quarter. The company has 165,411 employees as of 30 September for the company and its subsidiaries.

''On several fronts, our efforts to bring in operational efficiencies yielded encouraging results during the quarter. We have seen positive results of some of our interventions on sales, margins and attrition, and we will continue to focus on these areas,'' said chief operating officer U B Pravin Rao.

''We have been able to improve our margins during the quarter and feel confident of sustaining these within a narrow band. This is giving us increased confidence to make the investments required to meet our growth aspirations,'' said Rajiv Bansal, Infosys chief financial officer.

The company said its revenues are expected to grow 6.7-8.7 per cent in rupee terms.