Country’s second largest software services exporter, Infysos Technologies, on Tuesday announced a better-than- expected 14.5 per cent rise in profit in the October-December quarter.

Net profit rose to Rs 1641 crore, from Rs 1432 crore a year earlier. Income rose Rs 5786 crore versus Rs 5418 crore (corresponding year). Besides this, company’s earning per share was at Rs 28.63 as against Rs 21.47 a year ago. When compared to Rs 1,186 crore (Oct-Dec07), Infosys net profit grew 34.7% to Rs 1,598 crore (Oct-Dec08).

Speaking on this, S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies, said, “In a challenging environment, our focus is on creating value for clients, running an optimized business, and evolving our business model that will allow us to emerge stronger when the global economy starts recovering.”

It may be here recalled that the company and it subsidiaries, during this quarter, added nearly 6, 000 employees. The net addition during the quarter was 2,772 taking the employee count to 1,03,078. “We have seen a decline in attrition this quarter,” said T V Mohandas Pai, Member of the Board and Head – HRD and Education & Research, Infosys.

Experts do believe that after Satyam saga, Infosys Technologies would gain the most among the top Indian IT players. However, they also admit that though there would be no shift towards one single provider, Infosys’ reputation as a firm with high corporate governance standards as well as its US listing is expected to stand it in good stead when customers make a choice, said analysts.