Why Infosys CFO disagrees with Nasscom
As far as India’s equity market is concerned, he said that the Sensex may bottom-out at the 12,000-16,000 level. “Rupee seems to be oversold in the near term. If the rupee depreciates by 10-20 per cent in the near term, it will also help the market,” he a
Software bellwether Infosys’ chief financial officer V. Balakrishnan on Wednesday said the industry body Nasscom's around 14 per cent growth target for the current fiscal looks "ambitious", given the gloomy domestic as well as global macroeconomic scenarios.
"I think the industry growth of 11-15 per cent looks ambitious now, but Nasscom has stuck to its stand; so we will see," Balakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of an event.
Even after the tepid numbers reported by IT companies for the March quarter, Nasscom, currently headed by N. Chandrasekaran of TCS, has maintained an industry growth target of 11-14 per cent in revenue for FY13.
While announcing its earnings last month, the Infosys management had said its top line would grow at 8-10 per cent in dollar terms, hurting the company scrip at the bourses, which tanked 11 per cent on that day.
"If you look at the industry, at least the top two players have given guidance for 0-1 per cent growth in the first quarter," he pointed out.
He said client feedback had led Infosys to give its muted guidance for the fiscal.
"Either we will be right or Nasscom will be right, you'll know by the end of the year," he added.
On asked if the company will be revising its guidance, given the recent depreciation in the rupee which generally helps exporters, Balakrishnan said it was too early for a revision.
"It’s too early, (to revise guidance due to rupee movement), we have to wait and see. It is not only about rupee-dollar, it is about cross currencies too; they are also moving in different ways," he said.
Balakrishnan further said for the industry, every single percentage movement will have an impact of 40-50 bps impact on the margins.
When asked to comment on reports that the company is facing attrition due to its announcement of no pay-hike this year, Balakrishnan said no such thing has been witnessed in the company.