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Infosys forecasts 01-02 revenue at $535-$545 mn

India's second-largest software services exporter, Infosys Technologies Ltd, is standing by its 2001-02 revenue target of $535-$545 million despite a slowdown in its main market, a company official said on Monday.

"It (the revenue forecast) is about a 30 per cent (annual) growth in dollar terms," Infosys managing director Nandan Nilekani told a news conference in Calcutta.

Infosys posted a revenue of $396.5 million in the past year to March and said while reporting its second quarter results in October that its revenue would grow by around 30 per cent for the current year.

"Looking at post-September 11 and at the current global environment, the fact that we are looking at 30 per cent growth is good and realistic," Nilekani said.

The United States is India's top consumer of software services, accounting for over 60 per cent of the country's software exports.

A slowdown in the United States, which has deepened further after the air attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, has led analysts to downgrade their earnings estimates for the Indian software sector.

Earlier in October, Infosys had said its market for software services continued to be "challenging" amid pricing pressures.

Some 98 per cent of Infosys' annual revenue is from exports and of that, 68-70 per cent comes from the United States, Nilekani said.

The blue-chip firm said it expected its third quarter revenue to be between $134 million and $137 million, almost flat compared with the preceding three months to September.

"In our third quarter ending December we expect to do $134 million to $137 million...it is essentially a flat kind of revenue over the previous quarter," Nilekani said.

Nilekani said Infosys had 294 customers at the end of the second quarter, of which 84 generated more than $1.0 million in business annually.

"We have a diversified customer base and if one industry is being affected we are not that adversely affected (by the slowdown)," Nilekani said.

Bangalore-based Infosys serves a clutch of Fortune 500 firms through its army of close to 10,000 workers.

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