Thursday, April 14 2005 16:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Software major Infosys today (Apr 14, 2005) posted net below market expectations at Rs 558.64 crore in the fourth quarter and Rs 1891.67 crore in 2004-05 and projected a flat growth in the first quarter ending June.

Infosys fourth quarter profits rose 66.64 per cent over Rs 335.24 crore in the same period last year (2004), but made a one- time profit gain of Rs 45.19 crore by sale of stake in US firm Yantra Corporation. Profits in operations without the Yantra gain stood at Rs 513.48 crore.

Analysts expected Infosys to post about Rs 522 crore net profits in the operations alone for the fourth quarter ended March.

Nasdaq-listed Infosys said, "There was a pause due to restructuring operations among some clients and some clients complying with the Sarbanes Oxley act," a US law to enforce tougher accounting regulations after collapse of big corporations in America in the early 2000's.

The Bangalore-based Infosys posted a 47.27 jump in revenues at Rs 1987.32 crore in the fourth quarter and an increase by 46.91 per cent at Rs 7129.65 crore the whole year.

Infosys posted revenues of Rs 1349.25 crore in Q4 last year and Rs 4852.95 crore in 2003-04.

"The first quarter growth will be flat. But we will do better in the subsequent quarters and hence we have given a 28 per cent to 30 per cent growth in dollar terms," Infosys managing director and CEO Nandan M Nilekani said. Infosys will achieve revenues of $ 2 billion this fiscal, he said.

Infosys shares ended lower by 0.74 per cent at Rs 2102.30 on end of trading yesterday (Apr 13, 2005) on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), while markets were closed due to the Government holiday today.