Satyam net up 37

Satyam Computer Services, India8217;s fourth largest software company, today announced a 37.12 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit in the fourth quarter ending March 31 to Rs 397.5 crore but failed to lift the growth for the year as a whole, which stood at 14.8 per cent.

Satyam Computer Services, India8217;s fourth largest software company, today announced a 37.12 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit in the fourth quarter ending March 31 to Rs 397.5 crore but failed to lift the growth for the year as a whole, which stood at 14.8 per cent.

For fiscal 2006-07, the net profit after tax was Rs 1,423.23 crore. The total revenue for the fourth quarter went up by 35.6 per cent to Rs 1,709.03 crore while for the whole fiscal the revenues were up 34.4 per cent to Rs 6228.47 crore. 8220;Most of the gap in the growth of revenue and net profit is due to appreciation of the rupee by 6 per cent vis-a-vis the dollar,8221; Satyam president and Board member Ram Mynampati said.

As the rupee continues to appreciate, Satyam has forecast revenues to grow by 20-22 per cent this fiscal and earnings per share to increase by 18-20 per cent. He said that the company is taking enough forward cover to hedge against the volatility of the dollar. The company added 35 more clients during the fourth quarter, taking the total number of clients to 560, including 165 Fortune 500 companies. In January-March, the company added 1,265 employees to take the total to 39,552.

Though exchange rate worries persist, Satyam has not felt any impact of the creeping US slowdown and none of its customers has scaled down their engagement with the company.

Satyam also expects billing rates to go up by 2-3 per cent across the board due to the demand supply situation and greater value that customers see in deals with Indian IT companies, especially after successful execution of projects, Mynampati said.

Satyam, which is listed on both the BSE and NSE, as well as the New York Stock Exchange, said that it expects earnings per each American depository share to rise to 1.18 in the current financial year from 0.91 last year. Revenues in the current year are expected to grow between 28 and 30 per cent.