IT Company Mphasis Says Largely Unaffected By Visa Issue

New Delhi: IT company Mphasis doesn’t see much impact of the ongoing visa row on its business as it plans to invest and expand more in Europe. “I think our footprint on visa front is far smaller and manageable compared to some of the larger players. We continued very diligently to make sure plans are in place to avoid any disruption. There hasn’t been any. In case there is any knee-jerk or short term event, we are protected from that,” Mphasis chief executive officer and executive director Nitin Rakesh told news agency Press Trust of India in an interview.

The Bengaluru-based firm gets 70 per cent of its business from the US, 20 per cent from Europe and the rest from other parts of the world.

Mphasis registered a 17.6 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs. 184.1 crore for the three-month period ended March 31 compared to a net profit of Rs. 156.5 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

For the year ended March 31, Mphasis posted a 25.3 per cent jump in net profit at Rs. 791.6 crore compared to Rs. 631.5 crore in 2015-16.

Mr Rakesh said the company has plans to invest in Europe and grow its business in the region during the current fiscal year.

“Over the next two quarters, we also hope to make some investments in Europe. Less than 20 per cent of our revenues are coming from that region. Based on my personal experience and what we are seeing in the region, there is opportunity for us to to find higher-than-market growth,” Mr Rakesh said.

Private equity firm Blackstone acquired Mphasis from PC maker Hewlett Packard.

Mr Rakesh said that financial year 2016-17 was about stabilising the company’s business with HP and in the current fiscal year, Mphasis will look at bringing growth in that part of the business.

“The turnaround story for FY18 will be the HP business that we have had over a period. As we all know that business was declining and in a way diluting overall company performance in terms of growth. FY17 was all about stabilisation of that business. Our attempt in FY18 is to bring that business back to growth,” he said.

The company has announced partnership with DXC Technology to transform and modernise enterprise applications for public, private and hybrid cloud.

HP’s services business was merged with CSC – which is now called DXC.

Mr Rakesh said that Mphasis has distinct relationships within the HP group and its four businesses have transformed or merged with other entities.

“We are also moving from just being the execution arm or extension arm of HP’s delivery to now actually being partner with DXC. That moves us from back office to front office. It moves us to the front end of the transformation deals. I think FY18 is going to be probably key year for us to find opportunities for growth,” Mr Rakesh said.