Tata Consultancy third quarter net up 48 percent

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), India's top software services exporter, said on Monday quarterly profit rose 48 percent, beating expectations, as it won large outsourcing deals from foreign clients.
TCS officials were upbeat about growth in the months ahead. "All the clients are ramping up so we see good growth," N. Chandrasekaran, global head of sales and operations, said.
He said the company expected several new contracts. "The deal pipeline is fantastic and they are from different geographies. We have 10 deals in the pipeline," S Mahalingam, chief financial officer told reporters.
Ahead of the announcement, shares in TCS ended up 0.2 percent to 1,327.90 rupees in a Mumbai market that rose 0.5 percent.
The company, part of India's salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group, said net profit rose to 11.16 billion rupees ($252 million) in the fiscal third-quarter ended December 31 from 7.53 billion rupees in the year ago period.
That compared with a consensus net profit of 10.9 billion rupees on revenue of 47.91 billion in a Reuters poll of 10 analysts.
"The numbers are quite good. At every level, the company has beaten expectations," Tejas Doshi, head of research at Mumbai brokerage Sushil Finance, said.
"The company has been able to expand their margins on a sequential basis despite the rupee appreciation. I do expect some more margin improvement in the current quarter."
India's booming software firms have been winning large outsourcing deals from western clients, but a stronger rupee was a concern.
The rupee rose almost 4 percent against the US dollar in October-December, slowing revenue growth in a $23 billion software and back-office services exports industry that earns nearly 60 percent of its business from US clients.
India's number-two software exporter, Infosys Technologies Ltd, last week reported a 51.5 percent rise in quarterly profit and slightly raised its forecast for the full year to March as it won more business in Europe.
Mumbai-headquartered TCS said it added 55 new clients in the December quarter that included a $140 million outsourcing deal from a Latin American private bank for five years.
India's software and back-office industry, which earns 90 percent of its revenue from overseas clients, expects exports to rise 27-30 percent to $29-$31 billion in the year to end-March.