‘See continued strength in US, European IT markets,’ Infosys CEO Salil Parekh

Parekh said while there has been a lot of talk and inflation is high, on the ground the July consumer spend data for the US and Europe has shown year-on-year improvement.

“These are different signals in the environment…consumer spend is a good number, and that is one example…that gives you some indication of what is going on,” he said.

Infosys’ top boss further said he is comfortable with the recently-raised full-year revenue growth outlook of 14-16%.

The CEO of the IT giant revealed that the digital focus of clients is quiet strong. That, along with cost efficiency and automation are acting as twin engines, he said.

If indeed the global economy faces more difficulty going forward, automation and cost efficiency will become even more critical for companies, he reasons.

Parekh took over at the helm in January 2018, after a public spat between the company board and founders on issues of governance, precipitated the exit of then CEO Vishal Sikka.

In May this year, Parekh was reappointed as the CEO and MD of Infosys for a period of five years. He is the only non-founder CEO to have managed to be at the helm of the company for a second term.

In the first quarter of the Financial Year 2022, Infosys registered a single-digit 3.2% growth in consolidated net profit to ₹5,360 crore, compared to a profit of ₹5,195 crore in the same period last year.

The IT giant’s consolidated revenue increased by 23.6% in the quarter under review to ₹34,470 crore from ₹27,896 crore in Q1 a year ago period.

Infosys delivered a robust performance in Q1 with year-on-year growth of 21.4% and sequential growth of 5.5% in constant currency. Year-on-year growth was in double digits across all business segments in constant currency terms. Digital accounted for 61.0% of overall revenues, growing at 37.5% in constant currency. Net hiring was strong at 21,171. The operating margin for the quarter was 20.1%.

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