Profit at India's Satyam Computer falls six percent

BANGALORE, India (AFP) Apr 24, 2003
India's fourth largest software exporter Satyam Computer Services said Thursday its year to March net profit fell 6.2 percent compared with the previous year to 4.6 billion rupees (96 million dollars).

The fall came despite a 13.7 percent rise in total income to 20.5 billion rupees for the most recent year, the company said in a statement.

The result took into account losses incurred by the company in its subsidiaries.

Net profit after tax and extraordinary income fell 32 percent to 3.1 billion rupees. The firm did not elaborate on the losses it had suffered.

Satyam said 1.26 billion rupees was lost in its subsidiary Vision Compass.

"Keeping in mind the present business and economic conditions and also the expected volume of business from the existing and new clients in the near future, the management... decided to discontinue operations of Vision Compass Inc.," the statement said.

"Following the closure, the company made a provision of 1.26 billion rupees towards dimunition in the value of investments and advances from Vision Compass Inc.," it added.

Satyam, the statement said, will now focus on core areas of IT business.

Satyam development centers in India, the United States, Europe, Japan and Singapore serve 260 global companies, including 60 Fortune 500 corporations.

Based in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, it employs more than 9,000 software engineers.

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