New Technology

Outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services Ltd said on Sunday it would rebrand itself as "Mahindra Satyam," its latest step in efforts to recover from India's worst corporate fraud scandal.

Satyam, once ranked as India's No. 4 outsourcer, shocked investors in January with the revelation that it had overstated profits for years.

Tech Mahindra, a unit of tractor and utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra and 31 percent-owned by Britain's BT Group, won an auction in April for a controlling stake in Satyam.

"We are optimistic that this new brand will re-energize the organization and will be well received by all our stakeholders," Vineet Nayyar, executive vice chairman of Satyam's board, said in a statement.

Infosys outperformed its peers both on the front of revenue and profit growth in the fourth quarter of 2008-09. Revenue and profit grew by 25 and 33 per cent, respectively.

Amidst a depreciating rupee, IT companies have seen a rise in revenues and profits for the quarter and year ended March 2009. The combined revenue growth of the top four - TCS, Wipro, Infosys, and HCL Technologies - was 15 per cent for the quarter ended March 2009.

The cumulative profit for the four companies stood at Rs 3,840 crore for the said quarter, a gain of 13.6 per cent over the same period last year. The primary contributors to the growth were Infosys and Wipro.

TCS too posted gains. HCL technologies, however, witnessed a 17 per cent drop in revenue.

Its foreign exchange loss stood at Rs 201 crore. "Infosys has the lowest hedge, it is good on delivery, performance, it reads the market well and outperforms its guidance.

All these make me go bullish on the company among the lot," said Anil Advani, head of research, SBI Capital Securities. HCL's performance has typically lagged that of the remaining three, "HCL has never been a great performer but with the Axon acquisition, people are looking at it in a more positive manner," said an IT analyst who did not wish to be named.

On an annual performance basis, while Wipro gained 44 per cent in its revenues, Infosys emerged as the maximum gainer in profits with a 30 per cent growth in profit during 2008-09 against that recorded in 2007-08.