Saturday, April 15 2006 11:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Infosys Technologies, which is synonymous with India's robust IT industry, today said its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2006 jumped 21 per cent, even as it recommended a 1:1 bonus issue and a dividend of Rs 30 per share to mark its silver jubilee year.

India's second largest software services provider posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 673 crore for the fourth quarter, up 20.60 per cent compared to Rs 558 crore a year ago, reflecting an increasing growth in orders from customers.

Consolidated total income of the Group during the quarter under review rose to Rs 2,696 crore from Rs 2,019 crore in the year-ago period.

The Bangalore-based sofware major, which reported a year-on-year 33.2 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 2,458 crore during 2005-06, said revenues for 2006-07 were expected to be in the range of Rs 12,254-12,446 crore, a year-on-year growth of 28.7-30.7 per cent.

The Nasdaq-listed company, which reached the two billion US$ revenue milestone in FY'06, said it had cash and cash equivalents of more than US$ one billion.

"It took us 23 years to reach the first billion dollars in revenues while we reached the next billion dollars in 23 months," said Infosys CEO, President and Managing Director Nandan M Nilekani.

"The global IT service industry is showing signs of stronger growth and Infosys is well positioned to take advantage," he said, adding that the company planned to hire 25,000 employees on a gross basis in 2006-07.