By Ruma Dubey

The change in the management of Infosys could not have been more apparent. Usually, results, as per Infosys ‘tradition’ is announced first thing in the morning, sharp at 9 AM. But this is the first time around when the company is under a new leadership of a very able Vishal Sikka; a stark outsider in that sense. And keeping in tune with this change, even the results came in at 12.52 PM. Yes, the winds of change are blowing hard….

This apart, the market was very enthused with the numbers, Q3FY15, as it beat most expectations. On an average, estimates were that net profit for the quarter would come in at around Rs.3150 crore. As against this, net profit came in at Rs.3250 crore, beating all estimates, showing a 5% sequential growth and 13% YoY growth.

Its Q3 revenue was at Rs.13,796 crore, up 3.4% (QoQ) and 6% up YoY. There was a constant currency revenue growth of 3% (QoQ) in US dollar terms. EBITDA margin was at 26.7%, an increase of 60 bps on QoQ and 170 bps growth on YoY. Volume growth was at 4.2% (QoQ), the best in three years.

FY 15 revenue guidance was maintained at 7% - 9% at Sep 30^th exchange rate. And this came in as a big relief for most of us; at least we do not see a downgrade at this juncture and a big factor why the stock price remained so firmly in the green.

The encouraging aspect was that it added 59 new clients (gross) during the quarter and this was higher than 49 new additions in Q2. Even employee count has also gone up sequentially, with gross addition of 13,154 employees during the quarter v/s 14,255 employees during Q2. Total employee count at end of Q3 stands at 1,69,638. In terms of employee utilization (excluding trainees), it came in at highest in 11 years at 82.7%.

In terms of geographical distribution of revenue, North America continued to lead at 61.6% v/s 60.8% (qoQ), followed by Europe at 24% v/s 24.7%, India at 2.5% v/s 2.2% and RoW came down from 12.3% v/s 11.9%. In the coming months, the company could see stress in European markets.

In terms of revenue by industry, BFSI at 33.1% was marginally up from 32.8% in Q3 (QoQ), manufacturing was at 23.4% (23.3%), Retail & Life Sciences was up a bit at 23.5% (23.4%) while energy, utilities, Communication and services fell from 20.5% to 20%.

One of the big pluses of Infosys is its huge cash kitty. Many can construe this as a negative too as it means the company is sitting on cash and not earning as much as it could. Yet, it is quite gratifying to know that liquid assets including cash and cash equivalents, available-for-sale financial assets, certificates of deposits and government bonds were Rs.34,873 crore v/s Rs.33,616 crore at end of Q2. And Rs.29,748 crore as on June 30, 2014.

The company has pledged Rs.254 crore for F 15 towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through the Infosys Foundation - its philanthropic arm.