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Our Bureau

Chennai , April 20

COGNIZANT Technology Solutions (CTS) added in excess of 1,000 staff in India during the first quarter ended March 2004. Sixty per cent of these were fresh graduates.

Prior to this addition, the company had slightly in excess of 6,400 people in the country. The current manpower strength of the company is 10,500. The company expects to reach a headcount of at least 13,000 by the end of December 2004.

Interestingly, the company has begun recruiting at business schools in the US. The list of schools and the number of such recruits is not yet available.

Mr Lakshmi Narayanan, President and CEO, Cognizant, told analysts in a conference call that these recruits would spend some time training in India. Once they have been exposed to the offshore delivery model, they return to the US and take up responsibilities as account managers and relationship managers.

Asked if this was relevant to the context of backlash against moving of jobs outside of India, a Cognizant spokesman replied in the negative and said, "We now have the brand equity to command the best products of a business school."

A provider of IT services, Cognizant has reported a net profit of $19.8 million for the quarter under review, a rise of 11.86 per cent over $17.7 million in the quarter ended December 2003 and a rise of 94.30 per cent from $10.18 million in the quarter ended March 2003.

Revenues increased to $119.7 million, up 10.62 per cent from $108.2 million in December 2003, and up 61 per cent from $74.5 million in March 2003.

The company also increased its full year guidance to $ 530 million from an earlier estimate of $ 520 million. For the quarter ending June 2004, the company estimates revenues of $ 128 million. Current customer commitments come to about 90 per cent of the current quarter's revenue estimates.

Year-on-year, expenses grew as closely, by 58.72 per cent to $65.01 million from $40.96 million.

Selling, general and administrative expenses also grew along the same lines - 65 per cent to $27.18 million from $16.41 million.

Mr Lakshmi Narayanan said: "Demand for high-value offshore services continues to grow, with particularly strong interest in core application development and management services."

He added that the company saw strong growth across key client industries, especially in financial services and insurance. For the first time, revenues from financial services exceeded 50 per cent of total revenues for the company.

Mr Gordon Coburn, CFO, said that there was strong demand for offshore services. and that the company has significant revenue visibility. He added that pricing was stable and that he expected growth from clients won during the last two years.

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