MphasiS Q1 net surges 81%

MUMBAI: Mphasis BFL Ltd., a mid-sized Indian software services exporter, posted a much higher-than-expected 81 percent rise in quarterly profit on the back of increased technology and back-office outsourcing.

Bangalore-based Mphasis reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 35.3 crore in its fiscal first quarter ended June 30, up from Rs 19.5 crore a year earlier and much higher than the median estimate of Rs 27.6 crore in a poll.

Its revenue rose 35 percent to Rs 176 crore, a tad higher than the Reuters poll forecast of Rs 175 crore.

The company's shares rose to the day's high of 293 rupees after the results, up nearly 9 percent in a modestly higher broad market.

Mphasis, India's first software company to report earnings this season, counts Citigroup Inc., Pfizer Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. among its key clients.

It said it added 11 clients and 762 employees in the past quarter.

Its back-office subsidiary, Msource, whose results are clubbed with that of the parent, accounts for a third of total revenue and has grown robustly in recent quarters.

The sector's bellwether, Infosys Technologies Ltd reports its quarterly earnings on July 13, 2004.