TCS is focussed on winning US market, says CEO Rajesh Gopinathan; won't offer discounts to get new deals, says COO

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest software exporter, said it is still focussed on winning the US market. CEO Rajesh Gopinathan said in an interview to the Economic Times that US-China trade war is yet to be seen. He said that the IT major has the operational discipline to deal with a slowdown but is still focused on winning the  US market. “I want to be cautious about not talking ourselves into a situation. We will deal with it as it unfolds,” he said to ET. Meanwhile, news reports mentioned that TCS won’t offering discounts to get new deals. It will not engage in a price war, it said. Though the IT major is seeing a drop in prices by other firms, it will not follow suit, a report in Mint said. “We are not worried about the pricing play of our competition because we have always maintained you cannot compromise margins to funnel growth,” said chief operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam. [caption id=“attachment_4387049” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] On Thursday, TCS reported a record quarterly profit helped by gains in its key banking, financial services and insurance (BSFI) division and said it was well positioned for 2019 with a strong pipeline of client orders. The crown jewel in the Tata Group reported 24.1 percent growth in net profit at Rs 8,105 crore for the quarter ended December 2018. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 6,531 crore in the same period last fiscal as per Indian accounting norms.

“Overall a strong quarter to wrap up the calendar year and a strong pipeline and strong order flow that sets us up nicely going into the new calendar year. We are wrapping up 2018 with a strong revenue growth of 12.1 percent in the December quarter, which is the highest in 14 quarters, with continued growth acceleration in key verticals and across all geographies,” Chief Executive Rajesh Gopinathan told a news conference. Demand for TCS’ banking and insurance services is strong in the company’s biggest market of North America, Gopinathan said. Uncertainties such as Brexit could affect clients’ tech spending in continental Europe and Britain, but Gopinathan said while it was difficult to predict how macro factors would play out the company was actively taking up opportunities in that region. India’s $154 billion IT industry as a whole is benefiting from moves by traditional businesses to transform their legacy systems to compete effectively against more nimble start-ups globally. TCS, India’s biggest listed company by market capitalization, reported a net profit of 81.05 billion rupees ($1.15 billion) for the three months to end-Dec, a seasonally weak quarter for Indian IT firms due to year-end holidays in major Western markets. This compared with 65.31 billion rupees a year earlier. --With input from agencies     To keep watching India’s No. 1 English Business News Channel – CNBC-TV18, call your Cable or DTH Operator and ask for the Colors Family Pack (inclusive of 24 channels), available for Rs. 35/- per month, or subscribe to the channel for Rs. 4/- per day. To keep watching the Leader in Global Market & Business News – CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, call your Cable or DTH Operator and ask for the Colors Family HD Pack (inclusive of 25 channels), available for Rs. 50/- per month, or subscribe to the channel for Rs. 1/- per day.