Infosys profit up 21% on US deals

Mumbai: Indian outsourcing giant Infosys reported on Friday a better-than-expected 21 per cent jump in quarterly net profit, after winning new deals from US clients. The Nasdaq-listed firm said consolidated net profit climbed to 28.86 billion rupees ($481 million) in April-June from 23.74 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.

Shares in the firm surged 4.16 per cent to 3429.35 rupees in response to the announcement. India's second largest IT services exporter by sales, which is based in the southern high-tech city of Bangalore, said it had signed 61 new clients in the quarter.

The results come after Infosys last month announced a new chief executive and said its co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy was stepping down as executive chairman following a string of high-profile departures.

Vishal Sikka, a former top executive from German giant SAP, takes over as chief executive next month. Murthy left after returning from retirement as executive chairman in June last year to help revive the company's fortunes.

Infosys, created three decades ago by Murthy and six others around a kitchen table -has been losing market share to rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services and HCL.

In October, it said it would pay $34 million to the US government to settle an investigation into alleged visa fraud by the company. Many of India's IT outsourcing firms have reported subdued growth in recent years due to a global economic slowdown.