Haven't seen clients reduce IT budgets: Infosys

B D Narayankar

Press Trust of India

Bangalore Sep 8: Infosys executive co-chairman, S GopalakrishnanInfosys Executive Co-Chairman S Gopalakrishnan today said the company has not seen clients reduce their IT budgets due to the slowdown in the US and Europe this year.

"If there was a cut back it would probably get reflected in next year's budget... All companies are doing well financially... Their cash positions are strong... Balance sheets are strong. They are prepared to face the slowdown period," Gopalakrishnan said on the sidelines of 7th India Innovation Summit 2011 here.

There has been a resurgence of investor fears that the US and European markets, which constitute about 85% of revenues of Indian IT services exporters, are headed for a slow down and hit the sector.

Gopalakrishnan said, however, that pricing environment was stable for now, as the focus on containing costs has been there since 2008 as the companies realise the perils of global slowdown.

"The concerted action of the governments around the world to invest significantly to get the economy going probably gave some optimism, but it was shortlived," Gopalakrishnan said.

On the IT spend by clients in the coming months, he said it would depend on what happens in the next three months, which is difficult to predict. "Since IT service is a support industry to other sectors, the impact will be felt after the other sectors feel it," he added.

Meanwhile Infosys CEO SD Shibulal said in a statement, "We're not seeing any immediate effect from the slowdown in the US and Europe. Clients are paying close attention to the developments in those regions but they aren't cancelling any projects right now."

On recruitments, Gopalakrishnan said the company was aggressively hiring people.

On variable pay, he said, "Right now, we are not looking into reducing variable pay component because companies have grown last quarter.

"We have to wait for an event to unfold and wait for the next quarter results ... I don't have an update in the middle of the quarter."

Links

http://business-standard.com/india/news/havent-seen-clients-reduce-it-budgets-infosys/146260/on

http://m.mydigitalfc.com/it/havent-seen-clients-reduce-it-budgets-infosys-399

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/haven-t-seen-clients-reduce-it-budgets-infosys-176675

http://www.afternoondc.in/business/havent-seen-clients-reduce-it-budgets-infosys/article_34355

http://news.in.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5422654

http://www.manoramanews.com/cgi-bin/mmonline.dll/portal/ep/contentView.do?contentId=10023616&tabId=1&channelId=-1073865033&programId=1080127261&BV_ID=@@@

http://www.newspolitan.com/forum/art/india/business/GM3DSNBVGM5ECVCI