Infosys revamp brings in more large deals; shares surge

MUMBAI (Reuters) - IT services provider Infosys Ltd(INFY.NS) on Tuesday said a business revamp initiated by its first non-founder boss helped it win more large deals in the first quarter, fuelling a 5 percent rise in net profit.

Shares of Infosys surged 11 percent after the announcement, in which the Bengaluru-based company raised its closely watched U.S. dollar-denominated revenue estimate for the year. The stock closed 11.1 percent higher.

Infosys, a bellwether for India's $150 billion IT services industry, has in recent years struggled to innovate and retain market share due to a staff exodus that also hurt its ability to win big deals.

Under Chief Executive Vishal Sikka, brought in about a year ago to chart a new strategy, Infosys has made bets on automation and other high-margin services such as artificial intelligence and digital technology to regain ground lost to rivals including leader Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS.NS).

"Efforts in redesigning our clients' experience and our widespread adoption of innovation, both in grassroots and breakthroughs, are starting to bear fruit in large deal wins and in the growth of large clients," Sikka said in a statement.

Infosys added 79 clients in April-June, taking its total to 987. Client wins included a multi-year contract from a major German bank for application maintenance services, digital and mobility services, package implementation, and testing services.

Infosys also said it kept its rupee-denominated revenue growth view for the business year through March at a range of 10 percent to 12 percent. But it raised its outlook in dollar terms to 7.2 percent to 9.2 percent, from 6.2 percent to 8.2 percent.

For April-June, Infosys said order growth rose 5.4 percent from three months prior, the most in nearly five years. That was bolstered by a surge in demand in the United States, its biggest market, where the company is also listed (INFY.N).

Infosys, which provides IT services to firms such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and Wal-mart Stores Inc, (WMT.N), posted 30.30 billion rupees ($475.85 million) in net profit in the quarter. That beat the 28.86 billion rupees of a year earlier, and roughly matched the 30.20 billion rupees average estimate of 27 analysts, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Revenue rose 12.4 percent to 143.54 billion rupees, Infosys said.

Staff attrition, or the number of employees leaving or retiring, was 14.2 percent, from 23.4 percent a year earlier.

($1 = 63.6750 rupees)

(Reporting by Lehar Maan and Aditya Kondalmahanty; Writing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Stephen Coates and Christopher Cushing)