[R]6:00PM New York – Infosys revenue rises 24% and earnings increase 16% from a year ago. The company expects to benefit from the current slowdown in the U.S. and European economies.[/R]

Infosys Technologies Limited, software services provider based in India said first quarter revenues increased 24% to $1.16 billion from $928 million a year ago. Net income in the quarter rose 16% to $306 million or 54 cents per diluted share compared to net income of $263 million or 46 cents per share, a year ago.

Infosys Technologies Limited, Information technology provider said first quarter revenues grew 28.7% in rupee from a year ago. Net income rose 28.7% to 4,854 crore rupees for the quarter ended June 30, 2008. Net profit after tax rose 21% to 1,302 crore in the period.

Earnings per share increased 20.4% to 22.75 rupees from 18.89 rupees in the corresponding quarter in the previous year. The net profit for the quarters ended June 30, 2008 and June 30,2007 includes a reversal of tax provisions amounting to Rs. 31 crore and Rs. 51 crore respectively. Excluding this reversal, the earnings per share for the first quarters of fiscal 2008 and 2007 would have been 22.20 rupees and 18.00 rupees respectively, resulting in a year on year growth of 23.3%.

The company added during the quarter 49 new clients with total active clients of 567. The company hired 7,182 employees and after staff turnover added net of 3,192. Total employees are 94,379 at the end of the quarter.

S. Gopalakrishnan, CEO and Managing Director said, “Although the global economic environment continues to remain uncertain and could impact IT spending in the short term, we see several opportunities for growth as customers relentlessly focus on improving efficiency.”

North America revenue share in the quarter rose to 62.6% from to 60.7% in the quarter year ago, revenue from Europe declined to 27.3% from 29.3% and revenues for rest of the world increased by 1% to 8.8% from 8.7%.

Revenue and Earnings Guidance

The company guided consolidated revenue in the second quarter ending in September is expected to increase to between $1.215 billion and $1.225 billion, an increase of between 18.9% and 19.9% from a year ago.

Earnings per ADS in the second quarter are expected to be between 55 cents and 56 cents per share, a growth of 14.6% and 16.7% from a year ago.

For the fiscal year ending in March 2009, the company estimates revenue in the range of $4.97 billion and $5.05 billion, an increase of between 19% and 21% from a year ago and earnings in the period are expected to increase between 14.3% and 16.3% to between $2.32 and $2.36 per share.

In the rupee terms, revenue in the fiscal second quarter is estimated to increase between 27.4% and 28.4% to between 5,229 crore rupees and 5,272 crore rupees and earnings per share are expected to rise between 22.1% and 24.4% to between 23.52 rupees and 23.95 rupees.

For the current fiscal year, the company estimated revenue to rise to between 21,278 crore rupees and 21,622 crore rupees, an increase of between 27.5% and 29.5%. Earnings per share are expected to be between 99.34 rupees and 101.06 rupees, a growth of between 21.9% and 24% from a year ago.

Infosys Technologies Limited (INFY: chart) in the last one year traded as high as $55.80 in October 2007 and as low as $32.65 in March 2008. Based on the yesterday’s closing price the company has a market cap of $21.82 billion.