The Hindu Business Line : Infosys bags Pepsi contract

The talks of Infosys being short-listed for the Pepsi deal surfaced sometime back in the December quarter of 2002-03 and then the order was apparently frozen tracking globally weak economic conditions.

"This is a positive development as it indicates that global firms have now started taking decisions on frozen deals and deal-slices have started coming to Indian vendors," a software analyst with a foreign brokerage firm said.

"The sizes of these deals for Indian vendors may not be very big, but it gives them a beach-head at the global biggies' outsourcing basket," he added.

Boosted by a strong outsourcing rush, Infosys had earlier hiked its earnings guidance for the current fiscal after it beat its first quarter guidance reporting a 15.84 per cent sequential rise in net profit and 12.44 per cent topline growth.

The company expects to report a 39-40 per cent year-on-year revenue growth for the current fiscal in the range of Rs 6,731-6,722 crore. Earning per share is likely to grow 34 per cent to Rs 62.70.

The company added 29 new clients in the June quarter and was servicing 419 active clients by the quarter-end.

Top tier Indian vendors have reported a firming of prices and stable pricing environment, where they have been able to charge their newer clients more than exiting average rate.

The increased prices realisation, coupled with better operational efficiencies, is likely to help these companies report robust operating margins and drive up profits.