Here's what CEO Shibulal had to say about Infy's performance

Infosys announced a 2.4 percent quarter-on-quarter drop in fourth-quarter (January-March) net profit to Rs 2,316 crore.Revenues also declined 4.8 percent to Rs 8,852 crore in the same period.For the full year ending March, the company posted a net profit of Rs 8,316 crore, up from Rs 6,823 crore.

More importantly, the company announced an 8-10 percent dollar revenue guidance for the financial year ending March 2013, which is lower than industry body Nasscom’s estimate of 11-14 percent.

Here are some key comments made by S D Shibulal, CEO and managing director, Infosys at a press conference after it announced its results:

One, performance in the fourth quarter has been bad because of delays by clients in closing contracts because of slow decision making. Clients are delaying ramping up operations, he said. Demand growth in the financial services sector, which account for a large portion of Infosys’ revenues, was subdued, especially in North America.

Two, client confidence on global growth is weakening. While there is visibility on client budgets, spending does not always match those budget forecasts. In the March-ending quarter, unexpected scaling down of some operations by clients also took place.

Three, discretionary IT spending by clients is declining. Spending on IT is relatively better in Europe than North America. The company added five clients in Europe in the March-ending quarter, shibulal said.

Four, client budgets have been flat or marginally down. There is not enough visibility on clients’ IT spending. Decisions are happening month by month, making it difficult to issue far-into-the-future statements. Shibulal also said that earlier,one-third of the S&P-listed companies in the US used to issue annual revenue guidance. That has now come down to one-fifth, as companies are finding it increasingly difficult to issue outlooks in an uncertain economic environment.Giving revenue guidance in such uncertain times is a ‘bold’ step, Shibulal said.

Five, Infosys plans to hire 35,000 more people in the current financial year. The company added 1,200 local employees in the US last year as well.

Six, no wage hikes will be considered this year, although the subject will be revisited every quarter.

Seven, the company is assuming there will be no increase in the pricing of IT contracts in this financial year.

Eight, fifty-two clients were added in the previous quarter, which is the highest in recent quarters.