Infosys to review hedging policy
Bangalore: Infosys has said that it intends to review its hedging policy, given the volatility in the rupee movement, which was very high this quarter.

Infosys had increased cash and cash equivalents by Rs555 crore to Rs4,348 crore during the quarter after incurring a capital expenditure of Rs260 crore. The company expects to spend Rs1,180 crore on capital expenditure for the year of which Rs850 crore has already been spent by the end of Q3.

Responding to analyst queries on its Q3 earnings call, Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani said that the company does not foresee any dramatic increase in the IT budgets of its customers for 2006, with the growth in IT budgets in all likelihood being in single digits.

The two-year-old consulting business of Infosys was also on track with around 200 employees and had clocked revenues of US$10mn in Q3 FY06 and is expected to earn US$13mn in Q4.

The company said that though they had expected to break even Q4 FY06, being in an active investment mode, and recruiting aggressively, the break-even period might be delayed. The company said that the Chinese subsidiary was doing well and the revenues were on track.

To boost margins and productivity, Infosys is also betting on patents in areas such as wireless, media convergence and microchips in which intellectual property rights are also shared with clients. Infosys currently had some four patents and 24 patent applications had been filed. Further, the company has 85 preliminary disclosures for patents. On the performance of the BPO subsidiary, Progeon, the company said that it clocked revenues of around US$22mn during the quarter and was well on track to achieve the targeted US$80mn for the year.

Infosys added that Amitabh Chaudhry, currently the Chief Operating Officer of Progeon, would take over as the managing director and chief executive officer of the BPO outfit from March 2, 2006. Chaudhry will be replacing Akshaya Bhargava, who has recently put in his papers.
Back to News Review index page  

ICICI Bank to hire 10,000 more this year
Chennai: ICICI Bank is recruiting nearly 10,000 people this year, which will take its headcount to about 25,000. The bank had recruited about 8,000 people last fiscal.

K. Ramkumar, senior general manager, human resources, ICICI Bank, said the sharp hike in headcount was driven by the bank's growth in the retail segment.

More recruits are needed to serve the fast growing small and medium enterprise, rural/agriculture, private banking and wealth management segments. There's also a concurrent need for technical, back-office operations and quality assurance personnel.

Ramkumar said that 4,000 of the recruits would be freshers (2,500 MBAs from different management schools and about 1,500 graduates from various colleges). The balance would be lateral recruits at various levels in the organisation.
Back to News Review index page  

Royal Sundaram aims at Rs.450-cr in business premium for the fiscal
Mumbai: Royal Sundaram General Insurance Company is targeting Rs450 crore of new business premium by the end of the current fiscal, up from Rs331 crore in the previous year.

The company said that the floods in Mumbai and Chennai had caused a net outgo of Rs9 crore to the company and affected the profits.

The company, which has a sizeable motor insurance portfolio, has a claims-to-premium ratio of 65 per cent in the private car segment but over 100 per cent in the commercial vehicle segment, he said.

He said 25 per cent of the premium came from bancassurance and Citibank contributed around 8 per cent.

Citibank and Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance on Wednesday launched a co-branded credit card with benefits for the health and general insurance needs of the customer. The card provides members with health insurance worth Rs50,000 free for the first year and access to insurance packages developed by Royal Sundaram.
Back to News Review index page