Infosys: Narayana Murthy, son Rohan to log out at same time

On a day when Infosys beat Street expectations by reporting 25-per cent jump in net profit at Rs 2,992 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, compared to Rs 2,394 crore in the same period last fiscal, chief executive officer and managing director S.D. Shibulal tried to nip the talk of co-founder and executive chairman NR Narayana Murthy's son Rohan being prepared for a bigger role in the company by saying that Murthy junior's term will end with that of his father.

"At this point in time, Narayana Murthy has clearly articulated that Rohan has come in in a specific role and his term will end with the end of Narayana Murthy's term," Shibulal told a private news channel in Bangalore.

Since Murthy's return to the helm of affairs last June after the Bangalore-based firm posted lacklustre results, many have expressed apprehension that Rohan is being groomed for the top job.

Infosys expressed worry about the high attrition rate and disappointed on the dollar revenue front as well.

Employees had left at an unprecedented pace in the last quarter worrying the management and raising investors' concerns about Infosys' ability to win lucrative contracts.

The attrition rate is the highest ever seen and "more than we are comfortable with", Shibulal told a briefing. Annualised staff attrition rate stood at 18.7 per cent at the end of March, the company said, up from 16.3 per cent at the end of the same quarter last year and in line with the rate of staff exits in the previous quarter.

Shibulal said that the company is trying to retain staff through pay increases, promotions and other incentives.

Infosys reported a topline of $2,092 million, down 0.4 per cent sequentially. In the third quarter, Infosys reported revenues of $2,100 million. Analysts were expecting a flat sequential growth in dollar terms because of reduced spending in sectors such as retail.

Infosys said that it expects its dollar revenues to be in the range of 7-to-9 per cent for the 2014-15 fiscal, which is way below industry body Nasscom's projection of 13-15 per cent. Experts saw full year 2014-2015 revenues coming in a wide band of 6-10-per cent growth. Nevertheless, a growth of seven-to-nine per cent implies that Infosys would grow slower in 2014-2015 than it did in 2013-2014.

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