i-gate Q1 net profit Rs 11 lakhs

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">BANGALORE: For the first time, iGate Global Solutions (IGS), subsidiary of US-based iGate Corporation has posted a Q1 net profit of Rs 11 lakhs against a loss of Rs 5.60 crore in Q4 FY04.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">It also now plans to merge Quintant with itself and buy Symphoni in an all-cash deal.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"The signs are all good, the market is now responding to our key differentiator and with the migration of more work offshore, we should be able to hit the exponential curve by October 2004," Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGate Global told reporters while announcing the first quarter results on Wednesday.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Its Q1 FY05 net sales went up 2.5 per cent at Rs 141.56 crore while operating profit touched Rs 4.4 crore from Rs 3.78 in the previous quarter posting an increase of 16.4 per cent.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"We are now able to leverage the onshore-offshore leverage much better and have it down to 46:54 in this quarter and would be more comfortable if we could bring it down to 40:60 by next year," Murthy added.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">According to him, the line between BPO and IT services is blurring and companies are now looking at getting more on a transaction-based pricing model rather than a pure seat/person-based model followed by most Indian companies.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"If we are able to increase their business potential by increasing the number of transactions they do, rather than merely take care of the services they require, it becomes a much higher value add for the customer," he explained.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Speaking about the anti-outsourcing hue and cry in the US, he said "The noise on the outsourcing front has come down dramatically.And, because of that, what has happened is that the IT services deals are happening faster and faster. </span><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">However, we still have not seen much movement in BPO deals. We still see many people doing a wait-and-watch there. We are hoping they will open out in the next quarter, he added.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">It was announced in the previous quarter that iGate is also planning to merge Quintant Corporation with itself after buying out its residual 43 per cent stake, through a share swap as well as buy out Symphoni in all-cash deal as a part of its capital structure cleanup.</span></div> </div>